Tension Pulley not working.

Looking for possible explanation or alternatives to the tensioner not seemingly doing anything at all in order to change my serpentine belt. I cracked the left 14mm bolt and started loosening the 12mm tensioner and absolutely nothing happened. Its still sitting as firm as can possibly be, not even loosened a little.

Any help would be much appreciated. Im sure its stuck or something I just dont want to go banging on things unless I know exactly what im doing.

Thanks!

Added photos to show the 14mm and 12mm are loosened. Its very rusty, but shes still working at 180k miles.

 

Wanted to add when I say 14mm and 12mm bolts I mean the 14mm to the left of the pulley and the 12mm for the tensioner itself. Couldn't find a way to edit, sorry for double posting.

Also any other pictures I can provide id be glad too. I should also note that things ive tried was removing the 14mm bolt completely (As I need to take off the assembly to get to my water pump which im also changing) and even removing the 12mm bolt completely and placing them back in.

 

Thanks for responding!

I pulled the entire tensioner bolt out, unless you mean the one at the other end of the idler pulley, which is a much bigger wheel. It does look like that the whole assembly should kind of fall apart and rust is simply keeping it all in place regardless of unscrewing anything. The good news is its still seemingly holding solid tension, so I guess it works, I just have no way to change the serpentine belt.

When you say the belt idler bearing, you mean the small one closest to me? Ill post some more pictures showing what I mean and make sure we're talking about the same thing. Hopefully you can see what parts I can easily remove, the bearing itself just wont budge, that belts still on so tight that I cant do anything with it. You think just some solid rust remover and hope for the best?

In the meantime I am just going to work around it and get the pump removed, the pulleys arent "too" in the way, it should be doable, I am just a bit worried about the future of it. I will note outside of this area there is very little rust. Im not sure how it ended up so unbelievably bad.

The pictures are of the 12mm screw for the tensioner and the 14mm to the pulley with the round side piece (sorry language is failing me). The 12mm is the tensioner bolt you were talking about right? If so, I can pull it fine. If not ill assume you mean the really big bearing near the bottom. Could that be messing everything up? It looks alright from the top with a flashlight but I guess you never know. Was under the assumption the Tensioner pulley was how the breakdown point for this entire system.

 

Okay, I can try the PB Blaster. I guess hitting the top of that tensioner bolt is really the only way to try to loosen the other pieces. I can remove the screw itself as I posted above, but the space behind that screw slot for the tensioner bolt is so tiny. If I could get a heavy metal piece in there and just pull the living crap out of it I imagine it'd eventually budge, but I guess thats the best way is to just hit the bolt and hope the friction loosens it.

Considering its holding tension fine, just not letting me change my belt, and assuming there is no rattling and its all still running smooth. Would it be okay to just leave it as is and do the water pump? Obviously you can never be sure, but it doesnt seem like its going anywhere.

 

Well, the good news is that the tensioner finally gave after hammering the tension screw with a screwdriver about a 100 times. The pulley also spins super smooth, no wobbling, no noise. The slightly worrying news is I did indeed do a full engine coolant dump because I was changing the CHRS Pump and the Mechanical main water pump as I had a code of P2601 which indicated the CHRS pump according to the dealership, but I also knew that my mechanical pump was leaking as there was alot of pink coolant on my Mechanical Pump which the dealership said would probably drop a code at any moment. So I just did both.

On Youtube (I know I know) ive found a guy changing the coolant how I did and seemingly got it back to working by going into maintenance mode and bleeding it over and over to remove air pockets.

If you have the time is there anything I should be particularly aware of? I can read as much as I want but it is my first time doing a full coolant change. I have new coolant, its the one for Toyota (or Asian on the Coolant) that I was recommended. I drained about half a container which is a 2 gallon container so I imagine about 1 gallon will be right.

Thanks for all the help guys. You have been fantastic!

Edit: Wanted to add the Car has 181k miles on it. Its a 2008 Prius basic.