18 Attachment(s)
Saab 9-5 2.3T Serpentine Belt and Idler Pulleys
Serpentine belt replacement is specified every 60k miles for the 9-5. It's also a good idea to replace all the idler pulleys. You can probably get 120k miles out of the tensioner, but mine seemed to be making a rattling sound when it was cold out so I replaced it.
1). Find a level hard surface to park your car so you can use a jack and stands easily and safely. I had to get creative and maneuver under my deck to park on the concrete slab. Break the lug nuts loose on the front passenger wheel while it's still on the ground.
Attachment 3719
2). Jack up the car and place a jack stand under the front passenger jack point.
Attachment 3726
3). Remove the front passenger wheel.
Attachment 3716
4). Remove the belt's protective cover. There's one hex screw in the wheel well and four more on the underside. They're all 8mm hex heads.
Attachment 3724
This exposes the crankshaft pulley.
Attachment 3710
5). Place a jack under the oil pan with a block of wood between them to distribute the force. Jack it up, and watch the top of the engine. You'll see if lift as the weight comes off the engine mount.
Attachment 3715
6). Remove the Saab plastic engine cover around the oil dipstick. Remove the U-shaped engine mount bracket bolts. The four outer bolts are 16mm hex and the one big nut is an 18mm hex. You'll most likely need a breaker bar. I used a kayak paddle. There's a clip circled in green that supports a hose under the bracket. You don't have to remove the clip but make sure you take the hose out of the clip before you remove the bracket.
Attachment 3707
Here's what it looks like with the bracket removed:
Attachment 3708
7). See the big square hole in the top of the tensioner? It's there to stick a big old 1/2" drive socket extension in there. When you pull the extension toward the front of the car, you relieve the tension on the belt.
Attachment 3705
With the tension relieved, there's a hole in the side of the tensioner that you can stick a 3mm Allen-key into to lock it into a relieved position. You'll see it on your new one. It comes packaged with a little key like this one. Thankfully, my friend and I did this job just a few days ago on his 2000 9-5 and I stole the key that came in his new tensioner so I won't have to wrestle my Allen-key out of it.
Attachment 3702
Pull forward on the extension, and slip the key into the hole.
Attachment 3723
8). You can now take the belt out. There's really no set procedure to get it out. Just fish it off the pulleys and pull it out through the top or bottom down by the crankshaft pulley. Mine was pretty beat with 59k miles on it. All the stuff on the ground is belt shavings:
Attachment 3713
Chewed up:
Attachment 3706
9). That pulley on the left is the center idler pulley. That little bugger is the reason Saab switched to the short belt for a while, which bypasses that pulley altogether. I didn't want to risk any additional vibration so I opted to replace mine with the long belt again. After all the horror stories, this pulley was surprisingly easy to replace. Use a 13mm wrench to loosen it and then you can back out the bolt out with your fingers.You have to slide the pulley out with the bolt in it because the frame keeps the bolt from backing out enough. Pay attention to the configuration of the little metal plates that are on the front and back of the pulley. They're slightly different and you have to put the new ones on in the right order.
Attachment 3718
10). Here's the back plate sitting on the engine block.
Attachment 3711
11). Here's the tricksy part. Tape the bolt into the pulley. You don't want the bolt to be able to spin in the pulley's hole. This way, once you get the bolt in the hole in the engine, you can rotate the whole pulley and the bolt will start threading.
Attachment 3701
It took me 10 seconds to get it in there. No joke. Don't forget to take off the tape!
Attachment 3727
12). The upper idler pulley is a joke to get out. Use a 15mm wrench and it's out. Very easy to get to.
Attachment 3721