tensioner rattle

[Chris H]

fired up the Z last night form winter store and noticed the tensioner pulley was jumping around quite a bit. Never really looked at it much before but i was just wondering if this was normal or if there is a bearing that may be going bad didnt seem to drive anydifferent. thanks in advance for any ideas
chris

[tomtom72]

Yea the first time I actually watched mine I was kind of shocked...it moves like a yo-yo....nice & slow but moves none the less.

I believe that is within spec.....mine's been doing it since as long as I can remember...about 3yrs & 25k miles now....still seems to do it's job and I don't have any belt damage that I can see from the movement.


Tom

[ZR1Vette]

When I picked up my ZR-1 I noticed immediately the oscillating movement of the tensioner...it seemed excessive to me but with only 1400 miles on the odometer thought maybe that is the way the LT5 is. Not wanting to take any chances (I replaced hoses, fluids, selected clamps etc for that reason too) I replaced the tensioner and the serpentine belt and EASILY half of the tensioner movement stopped...in fact now very stable. Checked tensioner and felt strong (and was not making noise) so my conclusion is the serpentine belts tend over time tend to get ‘stretchy’ (yea I know real technical term but best I can do)… so I would suggest before replacing the tensioner (unless it is making bearing noise) I would replace the serpentine belt and see if tensioner movement is reduced.

[Chris H]

thanks for the replys. the belt is one year old now. slight noise is coming from the tensioner movement so I will keep an eye on it early this season and may reaplce it if i think it gets worse just to be safe. thanks again.
chris