I was driving on the highway and all of a sudden my power steering goes out and the battery light pops on w/brake light.. I pull over and pop the trunk and both my belts are gone.. Needless to say i was like WTF!!!.. Oh well, i had the car towed to my house and i find one of the idler tension pulleys laying on the engine under tray and the bolt for the tensioner all bent out of shape. My passenger side tension pulley was still intact but it seemed a lil hard to adjust for a new belt. I completely replaced the driver side pulley assy and reinstall new belts. I got everything back together and took it for a spin. I got maybe 5 miles before it all happened again.. this time my new assy was gone aswell as the passenger side tension pulley. right then i knew i should of replaced both the driver/passenger side pulley.. I've changed belts alot of times without this issue so i wonder what went wrong this time?? n e 1 else have this problem? fix? i ordered 2 new pulley assy (driver/pass) /belts/ both side brackets and will be reinstalling them soon.

What could cause the bolts to bend?
How did they completely disappear when the brackets are still intact?

what sux is i havent driven the car in a few weeks and was looking forward to a spirited drive.. i cant help but think what i did different this time around? maybe i need to use some more thread lock on the pulley locking nut.. Oh Well...

 

you don't need any thread lock on the lock nut. Only torque it down to 26 ft.lb. It doesn't need to be very tight!

 

i thought i didnt tighten them too tight, but they disappeared on me.. how tight does the belts need to be?

 

Little more background on the car, mods, any repairs or changes done recently?

 

No repairs or changes.. car has been boosted for about 5000 miles with no issues.. this came out of nowhere.. i plan on reinstalling all new pulleys and brackets and belts this week when i get around to it (work).. how tight are new belts need to be?

 

How are you boosted? Vortech? maybe you're tightening the belt waaaay too much if that's the case.

 

Sig says "TT"

 

when you push down with your finger on the belt, you should get about 1/2" of sag. Use approximately 20 pounds of force when you push down on the belts.

 

I just put the pulley back on the car.. works good when off boost. but when i got into low boost runs at 7.5psi the pulley nut would back itself off.. im glad i caught it in time.. only happens in boost though..

i stopped and checked it like every block around my neighborhood and it was good and tight. but once boost hit it was all over

i pulled into my garage, popped the hood and the nut backed itself out and was almost off the pulley.. i was lucky to catch it in time

and this is only about 2.7 miles of driving... The other side is solid/tight...

 

if the pulley tensioner is too tight on the belt, will it cause it to back the nut off? thats the only thing i can think of is to loosen the belt up more..

 

Did you ever get this resolved? I don't believe the idler pulley being torqued too tight would cause it to back out, unless the threads were stripped.