V-belt and plugs, 200,000 km maintenance. (pictures)

I finally got around to doing a few routine maintenance items that are just a bit overdue at 200,000 km. I'll post up a few photos in case it helps anyone else. The v-belt in particular was much easier than I expected. I was able to do it only working from above, without even having to raise the car or get underneath at all.

First off the v-belt. (sparkplug pics moved to here: Sparkplug replacement at 200,000 km (pictures). | PriusChat)

- I started by removing the little plastic tray above the radiator. This might not have been necessary but I figured it would give me a bit more room to work from above. Five of those little plastic-screw fasteners and it pops straight off (1 minutes work).

- Next loosen the hose clamp "A" and remove the air intake hose from the air filter as shown below.



Note that I only disconnected the one end of the hose and then bent it out of the way as shown below. The end of the hose stayed nicely tucked out of the way under the radiator cap here. In this next photo we can also see the next two bolts we will be working on, I've labelled them "B" and "C".


- A closer look at those two bolts below. Bolt "B" is to loosen the idler pully and bolt "C" is to adjust tension on the belt.


- The next photo shows me with a breaker bar on bolt "B". This one took a bit of torque to break free, the second photo shows the long extension I used for a bit of extra oomph. When using a pipe or extension like this to increase leverage, you don't need to use a lot of force (and if you do you'll break something). Used properly, a bit of extra leverage like this will keep the lateral forces lower and actually helps you free the fastener with better control and less risk of breaking something.



- Next loosen bolt "C" to release the tension off the belt and make it easy to remove.


- Once it's nice and lose remove the old belt and just drop the new one down and into place as shown below. With a bit of patience you can drop the new belt down over the pulleys pretty easily, though you can just fit a hand down there to help seat the belt correctly onto the various pulleys.


- Once the belt is on, use bolt "C" to re-tension it. You have to estimate 10 kg (22 lb) of force with your thumb on the longest section of the belt and look for a deflection of about 1cm (0.4 inch). After an initial tensioning I ran the engine for a minute or so at this point to let the belt settle before re-testing the tension. I also used a spring scale to practice and get a feel for what 10 kg feels like on the thumb. (I don't think the tension has to be exact, but too lose and it may slip, and too tight and it puts more load on the bearings.)

- Once you're happy with the belt tension then tighten up the pulley bolt "B" and replace the air intake hose.

- The belt I removed had been on for 200,000 km was still in reasonable shape. It still seemed to have all its strength, with no broken or shredded cords on the belting, but the softer rubber on the inner "ribbed" part was fairly extensively cracked. The close up photo here probably makes it look worse than it actually is, it's not the "strength giving" part of the belt where those cracks are. Still, it was a good time to replace it and a very easy job to do. All up this only takes about 30 minutes of very easy work.


BTW. I also changed the spark plugs at the same time. Since this thread was already a bit pic heavy I posted the photos in a separate thread here: Sparkplug replacement at 200,000 km (pictures). | PriusChat

 

Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad job replacing these at $150 a go. Even a slow ol' fart like me could replace 10 of these in a morning without breaking a sweat, and then take the afternoon off to go fishing.