The hydraulic tensioner may be going on my 2010 Civic. Is this something that I can can replace with an aftermarket part or should I stick with a Honda original?
Honda tensioner
- Thread starter greasegunn
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OE is probably your best bet but look at a Dayco at AA. They have been repacking OE stuff for some German and Japanese cars.
Look at the COO on the box and the parts, if its not Chinese go home order online with a coupon and go back and pick it up or if your a real [censored] like me order it over the smartphone right there in the store. 
gathermewool
Site Donor 2023
Symptoms? Mine has rattled for the past couple of years, never getting worse and only bad in cold weather. It also compressed smoothly when I replaced the serpentine belt. This leads me to believe that it's the pulley.
You are referring to the timing chain tensioner, correct? I thought they are almost bullet proof on a Honda. Are you having specific problems that lead you to believe your timing chain tensioner is going bad?
I just looked at a picture of it for a 1.8. If the hydraulic cylinder is wet the tensioner is shot, if its dry and has good tension you probably just need a pulley.
Straightforward stuff, easy to change.
Sorry - I wasn't clear - the serpentine belt tensioner.
Thanks Trav. Hopefully I can track it down this weekend. I have some issues with my hearing so pinpointing noise related problems is often problematic for me.
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Symptoms? Mine has rattled for the past couple of years, never getting worse and only bad in cold weather. It also compressed smoothly when I replaced the serpentine belt. This leads me to believe that it's the pulley.
Originally Posted By: tdpark
I just replaced mine, I started a mooing sound, the sound was the belt starting to go and I had all kinds of play in the pulley.
I did not have to- you could see it wobbling and the belt was starting to get chewed up. When they finally got the tensioner out- there was play in the pulley, looked and felt liked it was going to fail in a few places, they could not just fix the pulley as it had chewed into the assembly. The van is at 288k and this was the original tensioner. I have no idea how I got this far on the original factory tensioner.
Originally Posted By: tdpark
I did not have to- you could see it wobbling and the belt was starting to get chewed up. When they finally got the tensioner out- there was play in the pulley, looked and felt liked it was going to fail in a few places, they could not just fix the pulley as it had chewed into the assembly. The van is at 288k and this was the original tensioner. I have no idea how I got this far on the original factory tensioner.
So I "exercised" the tensioner by slowly putting it through its full range of motion a few times. Noise seems to have gone away. Of course, cold starts are not that cold this time of year. We'll see how things are when Fall comes around.
I had bad luck with my serpentine belt tensioner in my 2012 CRV last year. Had to replace it at only 20,000 miles. Warranty no longer in force despite the low miles I put on it. I knew it was the tensioner assembly as I could see the belt moving 1-2 mm left and right on the alternator pulley and heard clicking noises.
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