Hey guys, Im working on an Eclipse I bought with a blown head gasket and decided to change out the water pump and tensioner bearings as well. When I took the crank pulley off and romved the cover, the lower bearing just feel apart. I also found plenty of rubber residue from the belt rubbing against something.

When I looked at the hydraulic tensioner itself, I saw that the piston inside of it was only sticking out about 1/4 inch and doesn't seem to want to move. I could swing the bearing on the bolt back and forth which seems unusual too.

Is this normal or has it just failed? I plan on selling the car after I fix it so Im hoping I could reuse this part. If not then Ill just buy it at RockAuto. Thanks!

how many miles?

its a 95 with 106k miles

I'm assuming that since the idler and tensioner pulleys were shot, the tensioner itself was never replaced before either.

Replace it and save a headache.

You could always get the mechanical tensioner from www.partsdinosaur.com and save some money! I think I spent less than $200 on the timing kit from Parts Dinosaur and a new water pump from Advance alltogether.

i figured it would need to be changed. ive seen the mechanical tensioner but the problem is that i ordered both bearings and belt from them when i first got the car which makes getting that kind of pointless. I will just go with the hydraulic one from rockauto for $50. Thanks!

Good plan.

Look at it this way, either save $50 now and hope the 100K+ tensioner will survive....

or get the new tensioner as insurance against a failure which would cost you your valves and a whole lot of money. Take it from someone who lost a few valves (but for a different reason than a bad tensioner).