serpentine belt on 2001 prius

This is the one NZ engine with the one belt I guess or maybe you have an air conditioning drive belt too If this is the car with the air conditioning drive belt you may have to move it to put on the water pump drive belt and then put the air conditioning drive belt back on I have to look at the schematic of the engine to see this or you can look down at your belt arrangement and see if the air conditioning belt is outside of or towards the radiator from the water pump belt which I'm sure it will be as the water pump belt is the closest thing to the engine I'm almost positive It's just how Toyota rolls. So you might want to get the air conditioning belt and a new water pump belt just because I mean they should be $14 a piece or something from gates or any decent manufacturer and put them both on at the same time since you're removing one to put on the other doesn't matter if they look good it's 100,000 mi you say but how many years That's more important when you get to this many years if you will I would change them both if it was my personal vehicle so I'm good for another near 20 years If the water pump belt fails out on the road you have a real problem the need to move the other belt to get to the water pump belt and all of that on the side of the road or towing so it would be a bit more expensive.

 

If you take it to the dealer for service, they should inspect the belt along with other items and tell you what needs replacing. It's not a difficlut job if you remove the front passenger tire. It's best to have a belt tension gauge and look up the procedure for setting tension. As I recall the tension has to be set twice, first time when the new belt is put on, second time after running the engine for five minutes.

 

Nah you won't need any of that You just tighten it up touch it with your finger Make sure there's a little bit of room to push on it with about 10 lb of pressure or something like that and you're good on top of the line gates belt should last as long as the original one has been there that you're changing now at 200,000 or what have you this belt is under no stress use a good one It's sits there for 20 years It does no work or the least amount of work you can imagine.

 

This is a very simple job. Yeah, easier to remove the front wheel, but you don't have to. Just one bolt to unloosed the tensioner

However, SYK, if your belt breaks, it's possible to drive it a pretty good distance. I made 15 miles without a problem in pretty warm Texas weather. I would just run slow, only on the battery, until the battery dropped down to the mid-line. Then, I'd let the ICE kick in long enough to charge up the battery. Never did overheat.