How to Replace Serpentine Belt 2000-04 Ford Focus

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

This belt is far beyond the years where it should have been serviced. It should've been replaced a long time ago. We were going to show you how to replace it at this time. As you can see over on this side, if you look up here where the ribs are, there's a rib missing in the middle and some missing on the end. These ribs are very thin, so that is an indication of a extremely worn belt.

How you get the belt off is at the tensioner right here. I'm going to use this tensioner tool. You can actually buy these at 1AAuto.com. I'm going to use the 14 millimeter wrench bit for this. I'm going to slide this on the tensioner, and then I will pull it down. That loosens the tension on the belt. Now I can pull the belt off the crank just like that. Once that's off there, I can loosen the tension on the tensioner. Pull this tool aside for now. I can pull the belt off the tensioner and then off the alternator up here, off the idler pulley, the pulley right there, and off the water pump right here, and then off the power steering pump. There's the belt.

As you can see, this is the old belt right here, and it is beyond the point that it should have been replaced. Here's the new belt. It's nice and thick. Even if you compare the sides of it, the old belt is extremely worn. The new belt is nice, and all the ribs are there, so that's good.

All right, before we install our belt, we want to double check it, double check the new belt with the old belt. As you can see, that lines up pretty good. Remember, the old belt is severely stretched. If it seems like the old belt's about an inch longer, then that's okay. But if it was much more than that, this is only just a little bit longer. We know that this is the right belt for this vehicle.

All right, so I'm going to fold the belt, and I'm going to feed it up here. We're going to go around the alternator first. Once we get it on the alternator pulley, then we're going to come down. There is an idler pulley right here. The backside is on the idler pulley. We're going to go up above the water pump. It's not going to ride on the water pump. We just got to get it over that. Then it's going to go to the power steering pulley. It'll go around the power steering pulley, and we'll come down around the AC compressor. Then at this point, we're going to take the belt over near the alternator. It's going to go around the tensioner pulley. We'll take the back side, and that is going to go around the water pump. Get that around the water pump there like that so that we're at this point. Then we're going to grab our tensioner tool. Now we'll take our tensioner tool. Put it on the belt tensioner. We're going to hold the belt pretty tight.

We're going to start going around the crank pulley, and then with my other arm, push down on that to release the tension on the belt and go around the crank pulley. Sometimes it's a little tricky. I can try to move this tensioner tool so it's easier to access this. Then I have a little more leverage, and then it slides on easily. Make sure that all the ribs are seated on all the pulleys. Go around and check them, and this looks pretty good.

Next, we're going to want to start the vehicle and then shut it off and then recheck the belt. Make sure it hasn't popped off any of the pulleys. Make sure all the ribs are on properly, and then you're good to go.

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