How do you determine if the belt is too tight or too loose?? I just replaced my water pump today, and since I had to take the drivebelts off to replace it, I went ahead and replaced the belts too. After installing the new w/p, I was driving home, and noticed the check battery, and e-brake (my e-brake was all the way down) lights blink about every 20 seconds in the dash, then while running my car in idle for a few mins, the lights started to dim and eventually the car shut off, and wouldn't start back up for about 10 mins!!! what could the problem be????

 

jtm - I've asked this over and over and it seems like no one knows. Even in my FSM, it doesn't tell how you much torque to apply on the belt adjuster.

Guess I'll just have to call my local dealer and post it in here.

 

The rule of thumb (according to the haynes manual) is - 1/4" for the short belt and 1/4" to 1/2" for the long belt.

Basically, push on the belt with your thumb with a good amount of force between two pulleys and measure the deflection.

Check out the haynes manual.

 

I've always used the "tighten it until you can't twist the section of belt between the crank pulley and A/C compressor more than 90 degrees" method.

 

good easy way of doing it.