Ok, so I was changing the thermostat on my I30. In order to get to one of the bolts I have to tighten down the tension bolt. I've never done anything with this bolt in my life, on any car, but something made me think what I as doing was ok so I kept at it. After about 7 revolutions the bolt became completely loose and I was happy. Got my thermostat in then realized there's no way for me to get the bolt back into place. It was resting on this metal piece(the actual tensioner I assume) and seems as if it slipped off prematurely. I'm totally stumped on what to do now.


This picture sucks, but hopefully someone already knows what I'm talking about and can assist. I can't be the first person to do this, lol.

 

remove center tensioner bolt , beleive its a 14mm socket but using a ratchet wrench will make it 1000 fold easier

 

Hmm, where is that located?

 

 

As you apparently didn't loosen the tensioner pulley center bolt before turning the adjuster bolt you may have stripped the tensioner bolt and/or plate nut threads.

 

pmohr -Thanks so much for that diagram. that helps a lot.

P.Samson - It seems that the bolt is held in by pressure so I'm not sure that I stripped it although I might have.