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Yes! put a piece of 2X4 between the jack and the oil pan.
right on!!! Just don't be "that guy" on another forum that used a bottle jack and put it directly against the oil pan, and punched a hole thru the oil pan. A 2x4 or similar spreads the load rather than concentrating it in one small spot.
Whew, what a job. I put my jack under the engine and removed the bolts from the motor mount. Somehow, there wasn't enough room to get it out past the valve cover. I finally used a small C-clamp to pull two pieces together a bit, slid a screwdriver under each side of bottom bracket and one screwdriver on top between valve cover and 3 hole mount and wedged it out.
Everything else went as described in other post.
Thanks everyone for all the help.
I removed the access panel and shouldn't have done it.
Originally Posted by ChevyMgr
Need to remove the passenger side access panel under the vehicle and come in from the bottom.
All I had to do was cut the serpentine belt tool. It worked great.
Now I need to replace several of the plastic retainer push pin clips. I learned the hard way how not to remove them. Thanks and have a great day!
Hey fellow HHR owners
First post here ever...
I have to replace my serpentine belt and noticed last night that there isn't a whole lot of room in there to move around. I thought I might limit my frustration a bit and ask the experts first. Any tips or tricks or secret passageways?? My dealer wanted $130.00 to do the job, thought it was kinda high as I used to do this work on my old little jimmy all the time.
Thanks from Canada
no canadian jokes eh!
so i battled with it today.. there is a place for a 3/8 breaker bar to go in but not enough room to get it in there so.... i brainstormed and ended up running a piece of nylon strap around the arm the tension pulley is on and tied a loop about the hieght of the front of the car so i could stick a piece of unistrut (any bar or pole will work) through the loop and pry up while i slipt it in place.. very easy i did it by my self in about 2 mins after i came up with the idea.
Yes its all about using the brain lol. I fought it with a prybar for a bit and said screw im going to sit down and think of a way lol..... it worked like a charm
I just finished replacing the belt and tensioner, prybar on the jack and rereleased the pressure on the belt, removed the belt , lowered the jack.
Removed the bolt through the fender 15 mm, used a magnet to retrieve the bolt, wiggled the tensioner our the bottom, forward and down , reverse to install tensioner and belt.
I should have done this awhile ago, the idler pulley spins but is loose, now I know I could have just replace the belt and the belt, but after 11 years of service, I chose to just replace the tensioner
Nice new smooth pulley, the old one has a wear pattern and a ridge on it.
Clean new tensioner, so the spring is at full strength.
The new pulley , spins freely.
The engine side of the new tensioner
Here’s the old part....
Eleven years old, dirt built up
Dirt caked in the pulley
The belt wore into the pulley
Last edited by Oldblue; 07-09-2018 at 07:29 AM.
Reason: Housekeeping
08-16-2013, 03:29 PM
