meis250

hi all, 07 IS250 AWD here. Recently I started hearing noises from the engine bay.
Looks like the tensioner pulley is shot, but the tensioner pulley assembly is a lot more money and all I need is the pulley.

Wondering if I can just buy an idle pylley to replace the tensioner one.
Part numbers are:
Idle pulley - 16604-0P011
Tensioner pulley assembly - 16620-31031

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

It is not. I have an idler pulley siting in my garage collecting dust because I thought the squeak I was getting was from it AND that it was a replacement pulley for the tensioner pulley. However, after I had already purchased the thing, I decided to just replace the accessory belt with a new OEM one I had sitting around. The new belt fixed the issue.

From my additional research after all of this, Apparently a new idler pulley AND the entire bracket comes as one assembly. Perhaps there is a way to graft a generic pulley onto the idler, but I've not read of one thread about someone doing it...yet.

meis250

Thanks, that is BAD news...apparently to replace the tensioner assembly the A/C compressor has to be removed, so you need a shop that can take care of that as well. I will probably buy the assembly and replace just the pulley since that is easy to do.
All in all I am sick of this engine, I had the water pump replaced under warranty, just had the silent carbon buildup recall done (pistons and rings) and now after I took the car back I noticed the noise coming from the pulleys. Also have a small AC leak that cost about 1000 to fix.
I hope to hold on to it for another year but honestly can't wait to get rid of it. I've never had this many issues with a car engine, with any car.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

^Before you do the pulley, try replacing the accessory belt; like in my case, it fixed my "noise" issue. Or did they recently do that with motor rebuild or A/C servicing?

meis250

No I did not replace the belt as it is still good. However the dealer used a stethoscope and you could clearly hear that pulley being shot. Even if you touch it's bolt with a long screwdriver you feel it by hand.
Any good online source for Lexus parts? Never had to order anything before for my 07.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

When I was looking, ebay they had the best prices. If not going with an OEM component, I'd trust Gates :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Belt-Tensioner-Assembly-DriveAlign-Premium-OE-Automatic-Belt-Tensioner-GATES-/271820891107?fits=Make%3ALexus%7CModel%3AIS250&hash=item3f49c9a3e3&vxp=mtr
Not 100% sure the above is for your AWD model; please check before purchasing.

meis250

Thx looks like I found an OEM one locally for under 200

whitebeast

iTrader: (5)

My case was same as Gville, Changing new belt and all noises is gone.