This is a tale of terrible tesioners, this being third one I have purchased at over 200 a peice.. Just recently i bought a new tensioner and a new belt (I asked my mechanic to get me a NAPA 060535, but instead he got me the Gatorback equivelent.. he said its a better belt) Anyways he installed it i checked the holes on the tensioner and it showed 1.2 holes on the tensioner and no squeal.. Now its been 2-3 weeks after I have installed it, squeal is back barely at idle, but when iam light on the throttle accelerating it squeals the entire time and NEVER stops until i get off the throttle, i repeat NEVER. Even after it warms up.. So yesterday while i was getting gas i popped my hood and i check the holes on the tensioner and it went from 1.2 holes to NO HOLES! If anyone could help me i would appreciate any help or suggestions.. Thanks alot,
Jm

 

Ugh ... Bump

 

Have you replace the supercharger pulley with an after market one or is it still stock? If that pulley is misaligned it can contribute to the problems you mention.


Edit: Read the rest of your post, a supercharger pulley probably wouldnt cause the tensioner to go from one hole to no holes. I dont have any real advice to give you in this case. The only thing that would cause this is having the belt stretch, a lot.

PS, these tensioners do suck.

 

if you have a 15% pulley the gatorback belts dont come in a small enough size, so you need the napa/gates belt.

 

I have a 537 gatorback belt on my 15% and its worked flawlessly...

 

I agree, no problems here either. I also agree with the above poster if you have a pulley, maybe its misaligned.

 

I actually have a 17% pulley, so maybe the gatorback wasnt small enough? I dont know why they would give me a belt that isnt the size I had asked for, you think they would mention oh the gatorbacks dont come in this size.. As for the pulleys being misaligned theres pretty much no way to check if they are or not.. unless someone knows a way?

 

what i saw with the 537 was no holes showing in the tensioner. my car was running fine with no squealing i changed belts and had more than one hole showing on the tensioner. what some tuners found with the 537 however was belt slippage and subsequent loss of boost when they were tuning minis on a dyno. thats why i switched.