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Drive Belt Change

jayok

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Ok, so at 75,000 miles or 8 years, it's time to change the drive belt in your Accord.

Now, this has been called a drive belt, Aux (auxilary) belt and even a fan belt for the older die hards. It basically the belt that drives from the engine the coolant (water) pump, a/c compressor, power steering pump and Alternator, so it's pretty important to have in good condition. When shopping for a new belt, I found the Honda one too expensive, so I purchased a Gates one instead and it seems to fit perfectly. The cost for the belt was €18, so it's a small amount for something important. You can look up your belt here: http://www.gates.com/part_locator/index.cfm?go=part_locator&location_id=3598


Anyhow, onto the DIY - this is a pretty easy one.

** APOLOGIES ** The photos are terrible. I've just uploaded them from my camera and the look awful. Hopefully, it will give you an idea.


Step 1: Gather the necessary tools and equipment.


In this image we have:

The new Belt! :)
14mm Spanner ring-ended spanner (important) - open ended spanners seem to ring the tensioner nut
A Mole Grips (aka Vise-Grips)
A Pen and Paper


Tools.jpg



Step 2: Take a sketch of your belt route

I cannot state this enough. When you are fiddling with putting the belt back you will start to second-guess yourself. If you have your sketch, you'll be able to refer to this to ensure proper belt routing

sketch.jpg



Step 3: Create your Tensioner Release Tool!! :D

The Honda manual calls for a specific tool, some people make their own tools, while other user a cheater bar. The ultimate aim to to have a tool that will create enough leverage to that you can twist back the tensioner to create slack on the drive belt. To do this, I took my 14mm spanner and using the Vise-Grip gripped the open ended side of the spanner. This allowed me to utilise the Law of the Levers to create more torque

visegripandspanner.jpg


Step 4: Force back the tensioner

Using your Frankenstein tool, attach the ring-end of the spanner to the nut in centre of the tensioner and then pull the level towards the front of the car. The tensioner will move away from the belt and create slack.

leveragewithspanner.jpg



Step 5: Remove the Belt

Starting at the Power Steering Pump, pop the drive belt off the Pulley and, then gently return the tensioner to the rest position. The belt is now free from the drive path and can be removed.


Some notes:

1. Now this is a little tricky as the belt seems to catch everything as you remove it, but persist and it will come off.
2. I've seen people just cut the belt with the tension off and then just pull it out. However, I tend not to do this incase the new belt is wrong and I'm stuck without a car!!
3. When the old belt is off the engine, compare it to the new belt and it should be the same width and approx length (you shouldn't really see a difference as the old one)


You can see the Belt Wear, some loose strings popping out of it

beltwear.jpg
 
Step 6: Fit the new Belt

Ok, now this is tricky - simply because the new belt is stiffer and generally doesn't bend the way you want it too.

But start feeding the belt around the drive path, I normally approach it as follows:

1. Around the engine crank (drive)
2. Around the A/C compressor
3. Around the water-pump
4. Around the Alternator
5. Up to the tensioner

Do not attempt to route the belt around the Power Steering Pump at this stage, as this is the most accessible component. I normally leave the belt looped just in front of it. while I check the routing of the belt.


prepositioning.jpg


This will take time, but check and double-check the routing sketch to you made to start - you did, didn't you? :huh:

sketch.jpg



Step 7: Get your Frankstein tool again and pull back the tensioner, the belt will slacken.


Step 8: With the slack on the belt route the pre-staged loop around the Power Steering Pump.

Now the belt might take a small bit of effort to mount, but not too much. If you cannot strech the belt over the Power Steering Pump, then check that it's properly mounted in the groves around the other parts of the drive patch (e.g. crank pulley, alternator, etc). It may have moved.

Step 9:: Volia, belt is back on.

checkwhenmounted.jpg


Step 10: Finally, BEFORE starting the car. Check that the belt is mounted correctly on all drive components. That is that the Belt sits properly between the outer and inner guides of each pulley. If it doesn't rellease the tension and mount it.

If you do not, there is a risk that you will damage, yourself, the car and the belt if you start the engine.

Once, you've checked all is ok, Check again - just to be sure.

If all is good, start the engine and see the belt in motion.


Finally, if you check your belt wear indicator, it should be back to a good position! (photo is seriously bad, I know)

Indicator.jpg
 
Hi Jason,

I'm thinking of changing this belt so am glad I found you write up thanks. As I have to remove my air con compressor (I have read about a revised shorter belt to reduce premature alternator bearing failure due to the amount of wrap it does on the pulley) and have noticed I have the longer original belt. Your drawing of the belt path shows you are using the revised shorter belt. I have been trawling the www and can't seem to find a conclusive belt length. I see references to Gates 7PK2265 (7 rib 2265mm long), is this the old longer belt or the new shorter one. Your one picture shows it's a gates 7PK **** but can't see the rest of the writing. I am also seeing references to other belt manufacturers but the length seem to vary from 7PK2265 to 2268

What is the belt length for this shorter path?

Jay
 
Hi Jason,

My engine is a 2.4, so it didn't need the shorter routed belt - the one I used was a 7PK1750.

For your diesel the new shorter Honda part number is (38920RBDE02) 04301-RBD-305. The 7PK2668 part is the equivalent longer one I believe, not the revised shorter one - it appears from my research that the Gates equivalent of the shorter belt is 7PK2265.

http://www.mister-auto.ie/en/v-ribbed-belts/gates-7pk2265_g305_a0337PK2265.html

Maybe you should get a new one from Honda for the sake of a few pounds? I believe HH are doing a good deal for members?
 
Hi Jason,

Ooops didn't spot the fact your running a 2.4 :rolleyes:

Thank you for the info.

I will ring HH tomorrow, is there a contact or do I just ring the sales number?

Jay
 
Yeah if you PM the mods here and ask for the discount code (try Brett) then ring HH and tell them your from TA you'll get discount
 
Jason, I'm going to change my belt tomorrow before I go away on Friday as I'll be doing a few miles and don't want it snapping on me, it's pretty worn and frayed!

When doing the oil and gearbox changes I noticed it might be easier to change the belt with the undertray and O/S wheel taken off. Did you do this, was the job easier? I don't want to spend time removing them and it doesn't really help.
 
There is plenty of space between the belt pulleys and the engine bay to get at the belt, so there doesn't seem to be any benefit in removing the undertray. I can certainly do a belt change in 15 mins without taking the tray or wheel off.

Make sure though that you check and re-check that the belt sits properly on each pulley - you don't want this thing flying off. I generally do this by placing my thumb and index finger on the belt at each pulley to make sure it sits right.

For the ATF change though you'll need to remove the tray.
 
Cheers mate I won't bother removing them then. It's just when I removed the tray to do the ATF it looked like there was more access from underneath to get the belt on the lower pulleys.
 
BrittzTypeS said:
Amazon £19.
Done

:p

Cheers Guys
You sure was, 13 quid delivered from mister auto ;) I'm going to change mine now, hopefully it won't take long.
 
Let us know how it goes Rich.
 
It didn't take too long, was easier than I thought it would be.

First mistake was using a ratchet, I have a long hollow pole that fits over a small one so used that but once the tension was back on the tensioner moved further back so it was against the engine mount and I couldn't remove it! :lol: Had to take the belt off and swap it for the ring spanner.

A couple of things I did was to move the PAS reservoir out of the way, it just pulls up off the bracket and gave me more space. I also put the wheels on full lock, removed the plastic plug for the undertray that goes under the arch (there is also suppose to be a bolt but mine it missing) and this allowed me to guide the belt onto the lower pulleys and check it was on ok.

One thing I'm slightly concerned about is where the belt sits on the tensioner. It's not 100% in the centre and I tried readjusting all of the belt but it still sits slightly to the side. You can just see a sliver of gold to the side of the belt. The car is driving fine, in fact it feels better now but that's probably the placebo effect?

I thought my belt was frayed in one place but it was actually two.

gallery_438_47_9119.jpg
 
The belt should be a 100% fit on the tensioner. It should not be possible to see any of the pulley-face. If you look at the picture after my step 9, that's a top-down view of the belt on the PSP, there is no space either side of it. When you mention the tensioner, is the belt fully pulled by the tensioner and is it 100% on the PSP?
 
Not sure if this is an issue or not. I did 150 miles since adjusting it again as I've gone away. Checked it when we got here and had to adjust it again. I've aligned the belt to the left side of the pulley face and you can still see a sliver of it to the right.

The belt is sitting on all the grooves OK and on the face of the larger pulley underneath the tensioner. I'm wondering if it needs replacing, I also didn't think to look at how it was sitting before replacing it.

I'll get some videos and photos when I'm back home.
 
I've done 500 miles since replacing the belt and not had any issues with it. I think this is just the way it sits on mine or the belt could possibly be a fraction narrower than the original. Here are some photo:

gallery_438_49_61610.jpg


gallery_438_49_232844.jpg


gallery_438_49_46277.jpg


gallery_438_49_144813.jpg
 
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