so today I was driving and i heard a loud noise so i start to pull over and the engine starts shaking and I cant steer right so I pop the hood and my belt was snaped and my belt idler pulley (pulley to the right of altornator) was gone just the bolt and a striped out piece was there so I had it towed home and got the pulley from the junk yard and belt from the auto store put everything on and it seems to be running properly and well just wondering what caused this could it be somthing more ? thanks

 

I suspect the tensioner seized which is fairly common.

 

my 1996 V6 with 155,000 miles had the alternator die a week ago. in the process of removing the belt i found the tensioner was "stuck" on the pivot bolt. remove it and found the pulley was o.k., the bearing needed to be greased, but the pivot bolt for the arm and spring was the problem area. the aluminum housing that holds the spring wore the center hole (bushing) about 3/16 too big and the entire assembly was cocked sideways and stuck. it was holding the pulley off center, and not adjusting the belt properly.

 

It was wise to pull right over. That might SOUND funny, but it's amazing how many people keep driving until they do major damage...

Anyway, tensioners are known to go. I replaced mine recently on my 94 (at 260,000 miles I probably waited way too long), it was toast. It would spin, but was holding itself at an odd angle, which wore on the belt (which was also overdue).

Many people consider these to be expendable, and along with the idler pulleys, replace them at every belt change.

Mike

 

I just replaced my idler pulley and belt tensioner pulley at 77000. there was a little bit of a noise/whine coming from that area. pulled them off and spun them on my finger and the tensioner pulley had the bearings going bad. the idler pulley turned pretty smooth but had a little hum to it so decided to replace that as well.

 

My Idler pulley (not the tensioner, yet) started making chirping noises @ 95,000... apparently they just use crappy bearings in them... it's an easy fix to replace it. They normally give you a little warning by chirping (kind of sounded like the belt was slipping)... when I lifted the hood, you could easily see the idler just wobbling like crazy....