My serpentine belt snapped on the way home from work today. I heard a light tapping noise the other day in the area of the idler bearing so thought that could be it. My concern is when I opened the hood the lower wheel doesn't spin freely (see pic) hope it's nothing too bad. Will drop it off at the dealer tomorrow and see what they say. Thoughts?

 

Lower wheel as in crank pulley? Thats not supposed to spin freely.....

 

Oops I mean the one just above it...is that the water pump? All the other ones move freely. Btw, the TB/WP was last done by the dealer a couple years ago.

 

Dropped the car off this morning at my local indy and they believe it is a seized water pump bearing but will perform a full inspection and let me know. My last TB/WP change was 12/24/16 at the Lexus dealer here in Raleigh so I'm not sure why it failed but oh well. Will update when I have more news.

 

the water pump on the UZ engines are powered by the timing belt.

 

So the garage called and said it wasn't the water pump after all the idler pulley assembly needs to be replaced. Should have the car back tomorrow!

 

 

That's what I'm hoping. They said they were a couple of cars behind yesterday so it should be done today.

 

Car is back and smooth as butter...all told the shop replaced the belt tensioner assy, belt idler assy, and belt idler pulley. Let's hope this is the last repair for a while!

 

Congrats!!!