I was having my car inspected today (on a lift) and the tech's noticed the drive belt tension-er was seeping oil and was wet. This was not a noticeable leak where a drip on ground can be seen. It is clearly a part failing in the early stages.
This part is pretty much buried in the engine compartment and isn't seen easily. It is located left of center and fairly high up above most of the piping. Curious if anyone else has had this part fail. My car has 7k mi on it.

 

Do you have a pic?

 

Something must be leaking onto it. A belt tensioner wouldn't leak. Would it? What if oil was spilt when filling?

 

+1 LexVan.... Most likely. Will be interesting to see what the service techs find nonetheless.

For reference, here is the belt tensioner and related components (#3 is the actual hydraulic tensioner):

Hopefully nothing serious... as you can see in the diagram, there are a few pumps, compressor, and crankshaft pulleys that could potentially be a source of the leakage.

Keep us posted!

 

Oh and by the way -- the drive belts and related are much easier to "see" if you remove the rear bumper cover, spoiler, heat shields, possibly the carrier and other "stuff" in that area of the car. Easier than trying to look UP into the belt area from underneath!

 

Impossible to get a clear picture.

 

It is part #3 that Plenum was kind enough to put up for us. This part is a sealed hydraulic unit. There is no way oil from anywhere else could have made its way on to this part. There is a rubber boot that appears to have started to lost its seal integrity. I change my own oil and the the oil is filled using two funnels (one (smaller) in the other (larger) and the oil filter housing is on the other side of the engine. I am 100% confident that its not from an oil change. I am also fairly confident that it is not coming from any other part of the engine as it looks like seepage not a leak. There is no collection of oil below it. Truthfully, as I looked at it, I would not have know there was an issue.

I won't get to this issue until a couple of weeks lapse. I will keep you posted.

 

Picture of tensioner with roller.




Tensioner.




Wasn't an old fashioned spring good enough?

 

Yup, that's the part! The black rubber boot is what appears "wet". Since this is a part that is not readily visible even on a lift, I wonder how many others are leaking and have gone unnoticed.

 

So the car is in the dealership for repair. They have confirmed the part failed. The part was not in stock so I should know more tomorrow as to the work needed to replace. My guess is that this is a fairly labor intensive job. Keep you all posted after I review the RO.

 

Not a job for the feint of heart. Part is still not removed but getting close.

 

Hi! I was wondering how it turned out
I was told that tensioner leaks

how long of a job?
did you replace strut , pully.....belt also I assume

 

I just got told same. Its not a serious problem.

 

so, you don't need to replace the leaking strut?

mechanic told me otherwise, but I am hesitant, its a 1000$ job here
belt has 10 years of Summer rides.....

 

My guy says they all leak and it should be fixed but not urgent....in my case. He said lets do it next service(10,000 kms)