The serpentine belt tensioner on my 1993 850 makes a ticking noise all the time when the car's on, as it vibrates back and forth quickly. Is this just the way it is, or does this indicate it's going bad? How urgent (and how difficult) a repair is this generally?

 

Hi,

Sometimes you do see the tensioner pulley going back & forth just a bit, as the engine torque slightly changes. This movement is normal, but if the tucking annoys you, you probably have to replace it:

http://www.fcpgroton.com/volvo850drivebelt.htm

$115 is a bit steep for such a simple mechanism, but repairing these devices is not generally recommended.

The factory manual denotes that almost all tensioner & idler pulleys be lubricated periodically.

As long as the belt holds sufficient tension and is not slipping (noticed by high-pitch screeching) and you can live with the ticking, I believe you can defer the replacement.

I hope this is of some use.


JPN

 

JPN,

Thanks for the info. I started to think about replacing it a while ago, but then I checked the price of the part and that's actually why I posted instead of just fixing it I don't notice any belt slippage and the torque explanation you offer is actually pretty probable in my case given that my upper torque mount is shot (another thing I need to address that I've been putting off .. not sure whether to do it myself or have a pro do it).

 

Most likely the spring inside the tensioner is to weak.
To fix would require replacing it.