help needed to diagnose bearing noise
 

2000 base 2.7L with 118k miles.

started hearing what sounds like bearings going bad from the belt area and pulled the cover to try and pinpoint it.

here's a video of the noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSXYJ4XiuTM

sounds to me like a belt tensioner, it looks like its coming from the center area not the left (alternator), right (AC), or below (water pump - replaced 10k miles ago)

what do you guys think?

also, is there a tensioner kit i could buy? i'd rather change all of them (dont think they've ever been changed). belt was replaced 1k miles ago, it starter shredding itself to bits and i caught it before it completely snapped.. phew!

i know i can also just change the bearings for less but not sure how much of a hassle that is since i dont really have more than basic tools.

Some tensioners are on sale at ECS Tuning for now.
One of them is like $40, instead of $80...

Take the belt off and spin the pulleys by hand. It will be obvious which is bad.

are they all the same size? there's 3 of them if i recall correctly.
40$ is a great deal i will look into it!

good point and i have thought of it but i figured i didnt want to go through the trouble of taking off the belt (a bit of a PITA to put back from what i heard). since i believed i need some pulleys might as well get a full set and take the belt off when replacing.

The belt is probably one of the easiest things to take off and put on IMO. Only second to taking out the headlights...

ok so i got off my lazy ass and took the belt off this morning before going to work to find the culprit. it's the tensioner pulley that's causing all that racket! it has a lot of resistance when spinning, more than the other idler pulleys.

got the part from ECS for 50$ shipped. (thanks for the tip EJ! :) )

epapp you were right, the belt is so easy.. not sure where i got the idea it's a pain. I feel pretty silly i didnt do this in the first place. :D

thanks guys!