The bearing in the tensioner pulley of my 95 max has been whinning for the longest time...thing is I bought the haynes manual to fix it and they dont speak of the pulley or the bearing or replacement anywheres in there...which I suspected. Does anyone have instructions on how to do it, I dont want to spend the money if I do not have to. ALls I know is there is some bearing in it and I have to take it out and replace it.....well, whichone is the the tensioner pulley? How do I take it off? How do I replace the bearing? ANy help would be appreciated.

 

the bearing is pressed into the pulley. dealer only sells the entire assembly. good luck getting that bearing out.

 

but it was just a shield that didnt get put on correctly after it came back from the shop. poke around there and make sure everything feels ok, i was even told by a shop it was a bearing.

 

Is the shield black like a saucer shape looking thing?

had a little oil sludge on it.....

That is what I am thinking the shield is from when I took off the nut...its like a 3 inch in diameter washer shaped thing?

 

the day i found it i was gonna take it to the shop the next day, then it fell off on the way back to my house from a friends. it had been doing that for 2 months and then i find it and it falls off 2 hours later... and then the shop guys are being asses about it. they said i abused the car and they werent responsible for that b/c i didnt bring it back. but i did the day i heard that noise and they said it was a pulley bearing going bad, which it wasnt. i couldnt afford to fix that so i took my chances and "abused" my car. i hate them.

so what does that thing do anyway? should i worry that it fell off?

 

The entire assembly can be purchased from a dealer for under $50. If you suspect that the bearing in the pully is failing, it may just be a wise idea to replace the entire thing.

Its not difficult at all.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the black washer that you guys are talking about is to allow the pully to spin freely and keep tension against the adjusting nut, so the pully doesn't wobble from side to side.

Also, that shouldn't just fall off. There is a nut that is holding the assembly together. That washer in inside of that nut. If it fell off, you better make sure that the nut is still on there, or the whole pully is bound to come off.

 

also, from what i know, this may be incorrect... replacing the pulley bearing can be very expensive, i was quoted anywhere from 100-800 dollars. 800 being if the power steering pulley was going bad because the dealership will not replace that alone, instead they replace the entire power steering assembly. i dont know if thats true for all places. heads up though.

 

When I took the nut off and then that big washer there was also a smaller washer on the inside of that ...then the silver pulley....I tried to tug at the pulley but it woudl budge so I gave up because it was such an inaccessible area. That silver pulley is what is making that noise I think....but I dont know how to really get at it. The bearing is inside of that silver pulley? Can i tug at it? I am sorry to hear about your experience.....and if the job is no difficult at all...then why hasn't anyone suggested how I should go about doing this? ANd why is there nothing on max.org on how to replace it? I am just curious....because the noise makes me insane...I am at a red light...feeling cool...chilling....then the maxima decides to start whining like a weird dog whistle....which really does make the dogs bark at my house. Man...it really bothers me. Firestone quoted me a minimum of 150 to fix it or maybe it was 300....regardless I laughed and said I woudl do it myself. I would rather leave it and get new summer tires.

 

Did you search?

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ighlight=idler

A few posts in I describe the process of replacing the pully.