No sweat I'm pretty much on here most of the day, I keep a window open at my work desk haha!

Sounds good, I would also recommend doing the belts with the tensioner if you havent already, avoids future noises down the road!

And to be honest my main culprit of noises turned out to be a bad fan clutch in my case, my indy said the tensioners had some life left in them at 62k miles, but in the eyes of preventative maintenance the hydraulic tensioner is a much better design.

No sweat I'm pretty much on here most of the day, I keep a window open at my work desk haha!

Sounds good, I would also recommend doing the belts with the tensioner if you havent already, avoids future noises down the road!

And to be honest my main culprit of noises turned out to be a bad fan clutch in my case, my indy said the tensioners had some life left in them at 62k miles, but in the eyes of preventative maintenance the hydraulic tensioner is a much better design.

haha that makes the two of us then. I always have a window open for this forum and another one for the VW forum i frequent.
Anyway, I am changing the belts on mine as well. Car has 134k on it and i think the belts were changed at 90k. I should probably change the idler pulley as well.

yes definitely do the idler pulley, and the AC tensioner if that hasnt been done yet too.

Hey Ricky or OP, do you have a picture of the hydraulic idler pulley installed by any chance? I am having a problem replacing the old mechanical idler with the hydraulic. The hydraulic has a flat back side where as the mechanical has an indentation (bolts are not on the same level)
Mechanical pic https://www.autohausaz.com/search/im...281427252U.jpg

Hydraulic picBMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L > Engine > Pulleys > ES#2574923 Hydraulic Accessory Belt Tensioner Assembly - 11287838797

i'm pretty sure different bolts are used on the hydraulic in maybe a different mounting spot? couldnt tell you for sure as my car is buttoned up right now and my indy did it, i know that i bought the complete conversion kit from ecs (just has tensioner and some extra mounting bolts) and it went right on for my mechanic.

Yea, my tensioner didn't come with any bolt, oh well I went and grab the mechanical one from a local euro parts store and put it back together before it gets too dark... Oh well. Thanks for the help. :thumbup:

either way a new tensioner is better than an old one!

:iagree:

Hello Ricky Bobby

What did your Indy charge to change the Belts and Tensioner? Approx price?

Thank you
Jim