I have had terrible results with Dayco serpentine belt tensioners. About four years ago the OE tensioner body cracked on our company van, a 1997 GM G3500 diesel van. I bought a Dayco tensioner because that is what the jobber carried. I could see that the tensioner was putting on more tension than the GM tensioner, the slack side of the belt was vibrating at a high frequency. So I took the tensioner back and installed a GM tensioner and it has been on the van ever since. A couple of years ago I installed a Dayco tensioner on my neighbour's Tempo and again it was putting too much tension on the belt. Has Dayco reengineered their tensioneers since then? Anybody else with similar experiences?
Dayco Belt Tensioners
- Thread starter George7941
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I have installed Dayco belt tensioner and Idler pulley on our 95 Mazda B3000. They looked like decent quality product and have been on the truck now for about 3 months and 10K miles with no problems.
Cannot say how long they will last as this is the first time I have used them.
Cannot say how long they will last as this is the first time I have used them.
It was significantly harder to wind up the spring on the Dayco than on the GM tensioner. Needless to say it will be a long time before I install another Dayco tensioner.
I have had only one vehicle with a serpentine belt so I don't know about their tensioners, but maybe this is another case where if the OE part served fairly well and it's a mission critical part then maybe it's best to stick with OE rather than using aftermarket.
I went to Advance Auto, Pep Boys, and Vatozone. They all had the Dayco tensioner for my 1998 Ford Windstar van. O'rielly's had the gates and it 'looked' like total junk compared to the dayco which IS total junk. Anyone have experience with Gates tensioner's?
Is the OEM tensioner any different than Gates or Dayco? My local Ford dealer wanted almost double for the same Dayco as the parts chains.
Is the OEM tensioner any different than Gates or Dayco? My local Ford dealer wanted almost double for the same Dayco as the parts chains.
If the Dayco is actually the OEM part for the Windstar then I probably wouldn't hesitate to use it. I hate buying parts at a dealership because their walk-in price always seems high. I look for a good dealership that sells parts online, usually then you can get them for at least less than list price.
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