Hobibill

Well Barry, once you've gone through all you have to to get at the tensioner, I would say it is quite easy to install. Certainly no worse than reinstalling the original and since you wouldn't have to rebuild the original, easier. I've gone through both processes and would say that it is worth the extra $200 to go with the Porkensioner. In the case of this car I spent $200 to rebuild the old tensioner only to find that someone in the car's history had used the wrong tension arm. I had to pull it all out and then I put the PT in just to be done with the job.

Mark R.

But if the car has had the wrong tensioner arm ever since it came to you, shouldn't the noise have been there before the rebuild..?

Bill Ball

I assembled the main tensioner roller incorrectly once, adding a washer on the front side that should not have been there and it caused the bolt head to rub against the back of the crank damper, producing a noise just like on your video.

Hobibill

Mark, when I got the car the water pump was shot and making an awful racket.

Hobibill

I guess I could have screwed up the washer placement. Purrs like a kitten know with the PT, it's really a sweet runner.

Wisconsin Joe

Yes. Very.

Install instructions are available on the Liftbars site. You can download and review them, then draw your own conclusions.

Barry Chan

Thank you

Bill Ball

The washer was the one that should have been on the low tension warning tip assembly on the tensioner. It often falls off unnoticed until later. In this instance I found the washer, puzzled over where it went, found it fit the tensioner roller bolt perfectly and thought it must go there. It doesn't and the PET diagrams and WSM would have confirmed that. A clue that something was wrong besides the noise was the orange flecks of paint being ground off the back of the harmonic balancer.

Barry Chan

So the noise is from the stock tensioner, is it safe to drive? Does the stock tensioner roller still moves or seized up? Will it damange the belt? Or it just noisy and no harm done?

The reason i asked is because i have similar noise after the belt changed, cam seal, oil pump seal changed and my mechanic used the stethoscope and its coming from the tensioner area!

Hobibill

Short answer is I don't know. The belt was being forced to the back of the PS cam pulley. I assume this was causing uneven pressure on the rollers. I installed a new porkensioner and the problem was gone.