1998 Nissan Maxima Replacing serpentine belt on 98 Maxima

FATALEXCEPTION

MEMBER
1998 NISSAN MAXIMA
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
125,000 MILES

Boy was this fun, at first I only thought you had to loosen the vertical bolt up top, since the manual didnt include any info. Then I watched a video of a guy loosening that idler center bolt, I loosened it until the whole thing came out, pain in the *** to get back in of course, I couldnt get the large black washer back on either. I tightened both the vertical bolt and the center bolt pretty tight, is this OK? Or should one or the other be a little loose.

Also, it does a little squeaking on startup, and sometimes when I go over 1500 RPM's, then the squeaking stops. I dont know if its just because its a new belt or what.

1 Reply

CMDRDATATX

MEMBER
54 POSTS

Email me and I'll send you a pic of the belt. I can't seemed to upload it here. There is a tensioner that you need to rotate clockwise to loosen the belt tension, HOWEVER, before you do that loosen the nut that holds the TENSIONER pulley. That allows the tensioner assembly to move up/down. Once you do this, you can adjust the belt tension to the correct tension. Typically in the longest span adjust the tensioner nut so that the max deflection at the widest span to be around 0.5 Inch, then tighten the nut the holds the tensioner pulley.