After having my injectors replaced at a dealership on my 2001 Duramax in June 2005, the service rep. noticed that the belt tensioner was oscillating and said that I should have it replaced. (~63,000 miles with no issues/noise).

I searched all the part's houses around Austin and found that Autozone had one at a store about 30 miles away.....

Yesterday, almost one year and 10,000 miles later during heavy traffic I hear a big clunk sound in the engine compartment,the battery light illuminates, the power steering is gone and I have no brakes coming up to a red light at 45 miles and hour.

Luckily I got the truck stopped and off the side of the road. Neutral and emergency brake helped out a lot.

:help:

Opened the hood and found the belt was loose because the cast aluminum on the tensioner arm broke clean in half. I later found the pully section lying on the skid plate.

I'm not sure if this is a freak failure or is common or the cast aluminum is just weak in certain areas of this tensioner.....Luckily I kept the original one. I have a Goodyear tensioner on order for the time being. I've never experienced a tensioner breaking like this. I've seen plenty of pulleys go bad.


:grd:

You may want to think twice about purchasing:

DAYCO BELT TENSIONER for a 2001 CHEVROLET TRUCK SILVERADO 2500 4WD
Unit Price: $51.99


http://www.gloryfrogs.net/sigs/2500HD_Belt_Tensioner.JPG

I've heard others talk about this experience. Is it totally no brakes or is it no power assisted brakes?

Autozone isn't the place to buy parts for anything. Oil, wiper blades, wax, silicone yes, parts and filters no. They don't carry high quality and the parts generally fail much quicker IMHO.

After having my injectors replaced at a dealership on my 2001 Duramax in June 2005, the service rep. noticed that the belt tensioner was oscillating and said that I should have it replaced. (~63,000 miles with no issues/noise).



Since the Service Manager at the dealer found the problem, and your injectors didn't cost anything, and the OEM lasted at least 63K miles, why did you not just say to the SM, put a new one on?????

Since the Service Manager at the dealer found the problem, and your injectors didn't cost anything, and the OEM lasted at least 63K miles, why did you not just say to the SM, put a new one on?????

Because I don't have another vehicle and I needed my truck and this was after all the work was completed and I was getting ready to drive out, I decided to pop the hood and look in the engine compartment.

You could have loaned me your truck, I would have let them have it another day.

Because I don't have another vehicle and I needed my truck and this was after all the work was completed and I was getting ready to drive out, I decided to pop the hood and look in the engine compartment.

You could have loaned me your truck, I would have let them have it another day.

Screw giving the dealer that business just based on the fact that they replaced the injectors at no cost. 1. The damn things are warrantied for another 130k+ mi. by GM, not the dealer, the dealer didnt have a say in it. 2. The dealer should be thrilled they get to fix, for free, their customers truck, in hopes their good service (on a motor that shouldnt have had that problem in the first place(injectors that is)) will bring you bask as a repeat customer for another new, overpriced and semi-underengineered vehicle.

Rant over, just hate spending 2-3 times more at the dealership for work done than at an un-affiliated mechanic.