I got a Gates Tensioner from Rock Auto for like $35 and its a quality piece. It says its made in Canada not China. If you're in there you could do the relay roller too its actually easier than the Tensioner.

So i think i might need to do this.

The dealer says it is just the idle pulley bolt. Is this a different pulley or the same pulley. Can only the bolt be replaced?

The idler is different from the tensioner.
Do them both and the belt well you're down there.
Piece of mind.

Been looking all over for info on the idler bolt haven't found much. Any idea of the OEM part number. I guess I could try and dredge through the shop manual but trying to find shit in that sucks imho

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Use onlinemazdaparts.com usually how I find all my part #'s..

I tried searching for idler and didn't find anything.

I will just call MSM tomorrow they will help me find it. Was planning on ordering from msm anyways

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The pulley comes with a new bolt.
Mazda 3 Accessory Belt Idler Pulley - Idler Pulley - Gates Dayco - 12 11 10 09 - PartsGeek.com

Needed help with diagnosis, and I found this thread and figured that this was my problem. I took a video of the sound my car started making this morning. You can hear the rattle best towards the end of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FaAp...ature=youtu.be


Is that a sympton of either the tensioner or idler on its way out? I'm at 76,000 miles so I figured I may as well replace both.

Yes.

sounds exactly as my car has for 5k miles LOL

What a fucking nightmare that was. A 20 minute job turned into a 3 hour job after I snapped the upper tensioner bolt clean off. I had to remove 2 motor mounts and the hood, hook up an engine hoist (thank God I parked my car underneath the overhead hoist unbeknownst I would have to use it) and lower the engine out the bottom of the car in order to drill out the remainder of the bolt.

I had to do what Tokay did and use a new bolt with a nut on the other end because of the now drilled out threads, which was a royal pain in the ass unto itself in such a confined space. I don't even know what that little brass spacer thing is behind that bolt hole, but its marred to shit because of all the drilling I had to do.

Fuck that, next time I'll leave it. I'd rather listen to the rattling then go through that bullshit again.

They make cars out of butter these days.

Goodyear Belt, tensioner and idler part numbers found, I think
 

Can you guys tell me if these are correct part numbers? I've done allot of research at rock auto and summit and this is what I came up with, look right?


Attachment 103459

Yup

got the tensioner pulley from napa today. went to change it but didn't really notice the ticking noise today. pulled the tire and started the car and i heard it. it seemed to be coming from the idle pulley. is this one the idle pulley? from a previous post this is only $9.00???? ill change them both probably but if i don't have to change the tensioner pulley i won't but sucks that i spent the money tho

Lol. No.
That's the crank pulley.
Don't take that off.
The idler pulley is expensive.

The gates tensioner is to the left of that tho right? The one you broke the bolt on? I could have sworn my noise was coming from this big one. What is directly behind there?

Yes that's the tensioner.
The crank and timing chain.

Take the belt off and check for small stones in the pulley grooves.

Fukk! I was in there yesterday but decided to put everything back cuz it didn't seem like the tensioner. I'll just change since I bought it lol. Thanks for your help tokay. I appreciate it.

Holy thread revival, batman.

So at least 2 people broke a bolt off trying to remove the entire tensioner housing... but is it really the tensioner, itself, that fails or is it just the bearings on the pulley? The tensioner is just a spring so idk how that would actual fail unless the spring wore out. I'm pretty sure you can replace the tensioner pulley without removing the entire housing, which avoids the risk of snapping a butter bolt (and costs you a fraction of the full assembly).

So what REALLY dies and needs to be replaced? Pulley bearings or actual tensioner or both?

I just swapped my belt tensioner recently. The 'ticking' was coming from the pulley itself and not the assembly. Seems like the pulley just gets worn out, I could feel a slight amount of play in the pulley when I took it off and messed with it. I swapped my whole OEM assembly for the Napa part and I'm happy with it but I think I could have gotten away with only replacing the pulley for like, a quarter of the cost... Oh well, it works.