Help please. Serpentine belt not tracking right.

TheGratefulDad said:

I just finished replacing the alternator (remanufactured Denso) and the tensioner and pulley assembly (Gates) on my son's 2005 E w/158k on it. I bought both parts at RockAuto.
Everything looks like it's lined up right but on start up the belt tracks over 1 groove on the power steering pump. (Which I had replaced, along with the serpentine belt by a Honda/Acura specialist a few thousand miles ago when my son broke down out of town)
It's tracking right where it has been on the water pump. So, since it goes from the alternator, around the water pump to the AC pump I'm going to assume that the new alternator is lined up fine? Then it goes from water pump to the crank where again is right where it should be but as it goes over the tensioner seems to be where the problem is..
I'm considering replacing this 3month old belt with a new one from the Honda dealer and while I'm there picking up a new pulley (the bearings were shot on the old one) for the old tensioner and just putting that one back on.
Any one have this problem before? Or had trouble using a Gates tensioner?

Click to expand...

I've seen a couple other threads where people had an issue with belt tracking being off (always tracking towards the engine it seems) and have read through them. There were quite a few replies but none of the threads that I saw wrapped up with any explanation of how they finally resolved the issue. I'm going to make sure this one does.
I decided to take a 1hr 20min round trip drive to my closest Honda dealer and pick up a genuine Honda belt tensioner assembly, which they had in stock for $153 out the door. Exactly $100 more than I paid for the Gates tensioner that I believe is my problem. Like I said earlier, my serpentine belt only has a few thousand miles on it, doesn't appear damaged from riding up and over the lip of the power steering pump pulley the couple of times I tried it, and was tracking well before I changed the tensioner and alternator so I'm guessing it's the right length belt, so I didn't get a new one. I'll swap out the tensioner in the morning, (hopefully for the last time!) I'll update the thread with the results.

I've got it set up like this photo shows and I'm pretty much a 100% sure that how it came off.
The way I see it, since the belt, after traveling over the alternator goes around the water pump (smooth pulley) and tracks right where it always has before on that pulley on its way to the AC Condenser (grooved pulley) I've got to believe that the alternator is lined up correctly. Then it goes from the Alternator to the crank staying right in the groove as it should, before taking that long stretch under the tensioner (where it seems to get pushed off course) and then rides up the side of the PS pump puppey. After it leaves the PS Pump I can see that the AC pulley pulls the belt at a slight angle away from the engine and back on track, while the AC pulley and the PS pump pulleys themselves, I checked w/a straight edge and are perfectly lined up.
I've got a new tensioner from Honda here. I'm going to do that first.

Alright, in conclusion, I changed the belt tensioner to the genuine Honda part and its fixed! The "Gates" tensioner (it doesn't actually say Gates on it anywhere but instead on the box says "DriveAlign® Automatic Tensioner" made in mexico) from RockAuto gets a 👎👎👎👎👎rating from me.
With the belt on it seemed like the power steering pulley and Alternator pulley lined up but once I took the belt off again, sighting down the grooves on the PS Pulley to the Alt I could see something was off. After taking the "Gates" tensioner off I used a caliper to measure the thickness of the part where it mounts to the engine and compare it to the Honda sourced part. One side was off by about 1 1/2 mm. Then I measured the points where the PS pump mounts to the tensioner and that was off by about 1mm in the same direction. Then I set both parts on a flat surface with the pulley's facing up and put a straight edge across the pulleys and the Gates pulley was cockeyed by about
1 1/2-2mm. So not only did it move the ps pump slightly out of alignment, those three flaws together were enough to push the belt over the side lip of the PS pump pulley. I definitely recommend sticking to the genuine Honda belt tensioner. It measured up and looked exactly like the one that was installed at the factory in 2005 and is still made in Canada.
What was a great find and bargain though, was the $108 remanufactured (by AC Delco I believe) Denso alternator from RockAuto. It looks good, fit well, is making good power and it saved me about $382 off the $490 Honda wanted for a new one.
Hope this helps someone in the future!
- Mac

This is one I changed.