Ok, picked up my car for the 4th time from the body shop. I drive home only to have to stop and get gas. Door poppers dont work now. I crawl in through the trunk and car wont start. No starter, no cranking, NADA. Finally a guy stops and jumps me with his cables. No go. So I decide, lets put MY side negative cable jumper to the strut bar - BINGO! Car started up. I'm driving home, and my battery light is flickering solidly on, but flickering. I'm assuming I have a voltage problem. Well after praying that my car doesnt die at a light or in traffic home, I made it to the house safely. The second I shut off the engine, bam, nothing. No power, no alarm, no door poppers, no start.

is this either

A) my battery
or
B) my negative battery terminal cable ?

My terminal cable looks really corroded and rusted. I just bought my battery sometime last year (maybe 1.5 yrs ago)




And PART II of my post is : My belts sound like they are swooshing "shhhh shhhh shhhh shhhh shhhh" at idle. But when I give it gas the belt noise goes away. I DO have a underdrive pulley, and as far as I know that belt has never been tightened in the 2 years I've had it installed.

How do I tighten my belts easily without having to jack up the engine, car, and all that mess? I beleive I read a while back its just two bolts I gotta loosen in a certain order, am i right?

i think first of all it might be time to get a new belt...two years, through winter cold and summer heat...it probably needs replaced.... also if the belt still looks good and you tighten the belt it still is doing the same thing, i would suggest checking your battery and alternator...one of them is going bad... the car is obviously getting good ground if you could put the negative cablet to the strut bar

oh...and the alternator cable is seperate, the only way to tighten it is to tighten the alternator...the other belt tensioner just runs the ac and ps...

Sounds like your negative cable terminal needs cleaned. Stop by autozone and pick up one of their battert terminal brushes. Those brushes are only a few bucks and a lot easier/cheaper to try that first. As for the belt... both belts can be tightened from the top of the car.

>Sounds like your negative cable terminal needs cleaned. Stop
>by autozone and pick up one of their battert terminal brushes.
>Those brushes are only a few bucks and a lot easier/cheaper to
>try that first. As for the belt... both belts can be tightened
>from the top of the car.


Terminals are fine, so I think its the neg cable that needs to be replaced. I've had this happen to me before, with a diff vehicle though.... 2 starters, new sets of plugs, new battery, and new altenator, and finally i found out it was my neg cable was so corroded in my old blue truck it wouldnt start. pffft

Now, as for tightening the belts...tell me how plz. where and which first, etc...cuz I think I gotta do it in a certain order?

I would still clean the terminals first IMO

The belts are pretty simple to tighten and i dont beleive you have to do it in any certain order.

PS belt: The tensioner is located directly below the PS pump. There are 2 14mm bolt/nuts. The one on the back side of the tensioner pulley needs to be slighly loosened before you adjust the tensioner bolt. Once the pulley nut loose, turn the tensioner bolt clockwise a few turns. Check the tension in the belt it shouldnt have more than a 1/2 inch movement up or down. If it is tight enough then tighten the pulley nut back up.

Altenator: This is almost the same as the PS belt. From the passenger side of the car look down and locate the altenator. There will be a 15mm(i think) nut sticking out from the top altenator bracket. Loosen that and look towards the firewall side of the altenator bracket. There will be another tensioner bolt 14mm that you need to tighten. Same thing... tighten until you have no more than 1/2 inch movement. Tighten the nut on the top altenator bracket, and start it up to listen for belt sqeaks.

If it still squeaks you made to tighten them a litle more, or you could be like me and have a bad tensioner pulley that squeaks.

ok i replaced the neg cable from autozone for like $4 and I drove the bitch to work today after lunch.

w00t!


i'll look at the belts this weekend imo

>PS belt: The tensioner is located directly below the PS pump.
>There are 2 14mm bolt/nuts. The one on the back side of the
>tensioner pulley needs to be slighly loosened before you
>adjust the tensioner bolt. Once the pulley nut loose, turn the
>tensioner bolt clockwise a few turns. Check the tension in the
>belt it shouldnt have more than a 1/2 inch movement up or
>down. If it is tight enough then tighten the pulley nut back
>up.


I would disagree with loosening the pulley nut, tho'. All you need to do is tighten that 14mm tensioner bolt. You only need to loosen the pulley nut if the belt has actually fallen off and you're trying to get it back on. that should solve your problem myke

Noooo, if you dont' loosen the bottom cross bolt through the alternator and the upper tensioner bolt the alternator won't be tight and won't tension properly. Then tighten all back together again



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

Michael I wasn't talking about the alternator belt crossbolt, if that's where the confusion lies

the battery light, and squeek of belt, might have been caused by a bad alternator belt.

Some one said pulley nut, if that's what was meant, ,the actual nut that holds on the pulley, God NO!!!!

The bolt that goes through the bracket and tightens down (the tensioning bolt threads through). This is the one I think you are talking about. Which is what I was talking about needing to be loosened. I tighten the hell out of that bolt. And doing this you can put stress on the threads if you don't loosen it first, even strip it out maybe...



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

>Some one said pulley nut, if that's what was meant, ,the
>actual nut that holds on the pulley, God NO!!!!
>
>The bolt that goes through the bracket and tightens down (the
>tensioning bolt threads through). This is the one I think you
>are talking about. Which is what I was talking about needing
>to be loosened. I tighten the hell out of that bolt. And doing
>this you can put stress on the threads if you don't loosen it
>first, even strip it out maybe...


Thats what i meant... Couldnt think of a better description.

ok the last 3 replies confused me.

anyone got pics? or better description...i KINDA know what your talking about.


damnit! where's "iamnotwhoiam"? One day jason explained to me on MSN like a year ago how to do it in like 3 sentences, and i knew exactly what he was talking about.