How to: 99+ 2.4L Serpentine Drive Belt Replacement

[Blasian916]

This is a how to on how to remove and replace the drive belt on a 99+ 2.4L. It is nice to have a buddy to give you a hand.This is how I did it, if there are any suggestions or corrections feel free to correct me. Thanks

Things you will need:

New drive belt
15mm Wrench
Safety glasses(a must whenever working on a vehicle)
Some Patience

Before you begin it is very important to draw a diagram of how the belt is routed.

This first pic is just an overview of the area that you will be working on. As you can see, I already removed the belt (sorry, I forgot to take pictures before I removed it)
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/blasian916/702feb8c.jpg
This next picture is a close up of the alternator pulley and the tensionor. The tensioner is below the alternator with the bolt sticking out.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/blasian916/0ec214f8.jpg
Take the 15mm wrench and secure it around the tensioner bolt. The tensionor is spring loaded, so you will need to rotate the wrench back towards the firewall( towards the rear of the vehicle) and hold it.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/blasian916/115b9bcf.jpg
This is where a good buddy comes in. You can have him/her remove the old belt while you are holding the tensionor. Once the belt is removed, slowly release the tensionor. Refer to the diagram that you drew earlier and rotate the tensionor back towards the firewall again and route the new belt. The easiest way to route the new belt is to start from bottom left. Once you have that pulley routed then route the alternator and tensionor. Lastly route the pulley on the bottom right. Start your engine to make sure that the belt is on track. Congratulations you just changed your own drive belt!
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/blasian916/STA70251.jpg

[tenspeed]

I don't have any wrench holding buddies, I used a piece of wire to tie the wrench to the motor mount.

[alxndrk]

Interesting... I changed my belt yesterday and the procedure I went by was exactly the same. The only thing different was I routed the belt over the alternator and around the tensioner at the end. But that's not significant really.

I have a question about the tensioner though. You said, when you loosened it your buddy was holding it in that position so you can route the belt. Well, when I loosened mine I didn't have to hold it in place. It just stayed loosened. Does that mean my tensioner is bad? My belt is very tight though and the tensioner doesn't look to be bad. I bent the wrench while tightening the belt so I'm pretty confident the belt is tight and the tensioner holds.