Lets see, started a few things this weekend.
This all started because of a faint clicking I was hearing. It was kind of random but sounded like it had something to do with the serp belt assy.
Got in there to see the lower mount of the tensioner gas strut had oil on it. So I was going to replace the strut (Lifetime warranty on the Litens tensioner that Advanced Auto had). Well, you can't get that bottom bolt off without basically removing the tensioner so I ended up doing that.
But then I realized that something else was off because that tensioner wasn't that old. So I pulled the belly pan, side skirt, and metal cover off the timing belt for room. Checked the alternator pulley for functionality. It did not slip in either direction so it was toast. It couldn't have been like that for long though, the clicking of the failed strut just started happening, so luckily I caught it in time.
Thanks to another member on here (@hey_allen) who is in my area, had the metalnerd tools for pulling the pulley on the car. There's not much room on there and that thing was on TIGHT. I had to use the 17mm box end with a larger box end on it for leverage. The thing popped like a gunshot when it let go. I was almost certain I had broken something, but, it came off nice after it let go.
While I had the belly pan off, noticed the front of the engine was leaking. Again. I had sealed up everything (so I thought) from previous repairs. It was wet on top of the block lip under the oil filter housing that's bolted to the block. It's not coolant as I've sealed up all the connections with new seals (including the hard pipe) and it was dry above that housing. It looked more dry on the driver side which to me meant that it couldn't be the crank position sensor I'll call it CPS for short), but I figured I'd check it anyway. Pulled that, and even though there were no apparent leaks, that o-ring was badly deformed. I replaced it with one that was a TAD larger on the OD that came from a Harbor Freight kit. It fit more snug, so it's not going to leak from there. It looked like the rest of the leak was coming from the housing.
I pulled the housing off and you could see the gasket's life was at it's end. It was flaking and just didn't look like it was doing its job anymore. Luckily @hey_allen saved me some time, he had an extra gasket laying around that he wasn't using so I took it off his hands
. As well, he had that 12 point sockets to remove the small CPS bolt (9mm) which even nice socket sets don't come with.
Cleaned that all up and re-installed.
Then went on to the hybrid pan. I figured while the oil was out, I'd give the bottom end and inspection. I pulled the steel stamped part of the pan, inspected, everything was good under there.
Went to re-seal the pan and noticed some of the paint was flaking on the flange of the sheetmetal, working its way towards the inside of the pan. Not good. If the paint flaked from the inside and clogged the pickup tube, I'd be out an engine.
I called ECS who I bought the pan from, they don't offer just the steel piece. Why even have a 2 piece pan if the steel portion isn't available?!?! That's one of the selling points!! Anyway, after not being able to find any contact information for the vendor that sells ECS these pans, I reluctantly purchased and entire NEW pan from ECS on a discount (mine was a couple years old it was $65 with the discount. $82 retail). They shipped it free next day air too, which was nice. I'm still not giving up on finding the contact info for the pan mfg (MTC) but it's not looking good. I find it astonishing that you cannot buy the steel stamped part of a 2-piece pan in 2020. Someone makes those parts separately...
Anyway, IDparts is sending me the alternator pulley and crush washers for the turbo feed connection and the rest of the stuff is on the way. This turned into a much bigger project than I anticipated for a tensioner strut.
Edit: Looks like I found the vendor contact for the pans. I shot them an email and left a message, I'll report back on what they say
