Is it easy to change a serpentine belt on your own (especially with no mechanical experience)? How much SHOULD it cost to have someone else do it?

 

Expect to pay for an hour of work unless they have a deal were they will replace the belt for 60 bucks which ive seen at those oil change places.... Its real ez to do you dont need any mechanical experience to do it, its real ez and will take you ten min tops. First off do you have the belt diagram under the hood?? If not what year is you explorer, i have then in a repair book for if you need, other wise you will have to make a sketch before you remove the belt, You will need a 1/2 inch socket or open ended wrench, i think the socket is ezer to use personally, if you remove or move the intake tube its a lot ezer to get to the belt, (this is the tube that runs over the fan shroud right in front of the radiator) now look down you will see a pully which is smooth it to the right of the alternator a little bit lower, the belt sort of just rides on this, this is the belt tensionor, take your socket and pull turn it couter clockwise the whole thing will move thats normal, you will probally have to put some muscle into it since there is a spring inside, once you losen it a little hold it (it will want to spring back) and start by removing the belt off the alternator once off you may let it go but slowly, it will turn around more than it was with the belt on it thats ok. undue the belt off all the accesories and work it out i think pulling it out from the bottom is ezer. Now with the new belt also i think feeding it up fromt the bottom is ezer, start by feeding i all the way up to the top and wrapping it around the bottom pully on the engine (it helps if you have a second person to grab the belt on top and hold it until you can get up to the top) Now you want to follow the diagram and work it around all the accesories makeing sure you have the grooves lined up, try to leave the alternator last which is ezer when you have to hold to the tensonor back. Now once you have it around everything but the alternator go back and turn the tensionor back up until you can get the belt around the alternator once the belt is on the alternator let you may remove the wrench from the tensionor, you dont have to worry about the tension since its an auto tensionor, and all you have to do is replace the intake tub and your done. Sounds confusing HUH, take a look under the hood and try to locate the lable, belt tensionor and the intake tub if you can find all that you are all set and will take you ten min as long as you can follow a diagram its real ez, even for someone who has never done it before

 

As golfboy said, it's easy as long as you have that diagram which should be on the decal under the hood. Also, for a first timer, it's even easier if you have a 2nd person. One person holds down the tensioner, and the other threads the belt.

Mike

 

great directions, golfboy.
I've heard tensioners go bad after a long time. What symptoms do they have when theyre going bad?

 

Its easier to change the belt with 2 people one putting the belt on top and the other moving the tensioner on the bottom, when a tensioner goes it makes a whinning and squeaky noise from what my friends tell me....

Good Luck!

 

When my tensioner went bad on my 95 Taurus (I'm sure it'll sound similar on my X) you heard a whinning (as Msp541 stated) noise, pretty nasty after waiting a week to get it replaced. I also noticed the belt would not stay "centered" on the tensioner. Not only is the belt easy the replace the tensioner was simple also (based on my experience with the taurus).

Mike

 

Every pully that the belt goes around has a bearing on it's shaft. They all make slightly different sounds when going bad. If one is careful, the suspect bearing can be found with the motor running. With the belt off, turn each pulley to feel if it turns smoothly.

For the 4.0L SOHC, the tensioner bearings do go bad but there is also what is called an "idler" pulley that can go bad towards the top of the serpentine path. I replaced mine (less than $20) at 56K when I changed the belt due to noise coming from it. So don't just assume the tensioner pulley is the bad one.

One can use a "cheater" bar on the socket wrench to help rotate tensioner. A "cheater bar" is a small pipe that fits over the socket wrench handle to help give additional leverage. One has to make a cheater bar; they do not sell them. Of course, if your socket wrench is not of good quality, it will break.