Love my Honda Clarity…and we also own a Prius Prime.  The Prius has lots more tech than the Honda, especially when it comes to monitoring the operation of the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine).  One of the simple upgrades is to install an engine hour meter so you can really keep track of how much the ICE is running.  This is most important for maintenance reasons.  And, if you’re concerned about the environment and don’t want to “over oil change” it is also a way to make sure you don’t throw out completely good oil.

Following the advice of KentuckyKen on the InsideEVSForum I purchased a low cost hour meter on eBay.  Shipped from the US, mine cost $6.98.  I purchased another from Hong Kong for $4.47.  I figured I’d do one for the Clarity and then try one for the Prime.

While there was a part of me who wanted to get a mechanical hour meter, I determined that not having to find a 12V wire that was energized when the ICE was on was a benefit of using one of these self-powered meters.  There is no power required as the meter has its own internal battery.  When it runs out, I’ll just buy another.

Here’s how it came.  Now to connect it to my snowmobile…oh, I live in Texas…I mean my motorcycle.

The package contents, unpacked.

The installation instructions.

For a mounting location, I like the plastic cover over the wires.  I think I can use the short screws through the meter to attach to the plastic cover without damaging anything.

The meter is just the right size to fit there.

See how it will look when installed?

Let’s remove the cover to expose the spark plug coils.  The cover just snaps in place with rubber grommets, so just pull upward to remove.  Here are a couple of pics to show you what the part looks like.

Now we have the coils exposed.

The easiest way to do this is to remove the coil.  Start by pressing the tab on the connector near my thumb end and gently pull on the sides to disconnect.

The coil is held in place with one 10mm bolt.  Simply remove it and pull up to remove the spark plug coil.  For all you old-timers, remember when there was one coil with spark plug wires running all over the place?  Now the low voltage wires are run to the individual coils and it makes for a much neater installation.  This EE loves me some electronics!

Here’s the fully removed coil.  So simple and elegant.

While you have the coil removed you can wrap the wire around it.  Try and keep it up off the seal.  What will happen is when you reinstall the coil you’ll find the wire is snugly compressed and, at least on my installation, it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere!  Be sure and leave enough to connect to the meter.

This is a little hard to see, but the wire just slips into the slot in the back of the meter and is held in place by compression.  Use a small screwdriver to shove it in place.

So here it is installed and I’m testing it.  Already have 0.1 hours (6 minutes) on the meter.  Had to run it around the neighborhood in Sport HV mode.

And here we are with the screws installed.  I’ll remove this in a bit and make sure the tips of the screws are not causing any issues.

Video:

Now let’s get out the label maker and put a label on it so those folks peeking under the hood will (hopefully) understand what it is.

After running around for a bit, punching it in Sport HV mode to get some hours on the ICE.

I love my Clarity.  But, I don’t feel comfortable knowing where the long front end is when I park the car.  So I embarked on adding some ultrasonic sensors to the front.  I suppose I could’ve added a camera, but I was looking for something a little less obvious in the cab.

This is not for the faint of heart.  It requires drilling holes in the bumper of your new car.  I was, however, able to do this without removing the bumper.

I ordered the Rostra FrontZone 250-1920-FZ from SavingLots.com.  $93 + 12.50 shipping:  $105.50.  I found the kit to be very complete and professional.

Something to note.  The Rostra system has a CAN interface that is supposed to detect when the vehicle is moving a certain speed (off at 10 mph and on at 6 mph) and disable/enable the system.  This only works on 11-bit CAN systems and my experience with attaching it to the OBDII port with the included connector has been disappointing.  I keep getting the E0 message.  At this point I’m not sure whether there is an incompatibility issue or not, as I understand most CAN-B (29-bit) systems can understand CAN-A (11-bit systems).  I have sent a question in to Rostra, but as of 6/9/2019, they have not responded.  I’m going to be rather torqued if they never respond!

“If the ECU is disconnected or getting incorrect information from the CAN-BUS interface, “E0” will be displayed and the system will sound 5 beeps consecutively.”

I first had to determine where to mount the sensors.  I decided I wanted two of them to be low (closer to the curb) and the others to be in the approximate locations recommended by the installation template.

For the sensors in the bumper, I measured from the car centerline…approximately 795mm.  After measuring, I pushed on the bumper and looked behind it with a light to make sure I could see where I was pressing and there was adequate clearance.  I marked the distance with a grease pencil and then measured to center the vertical distance.  I used a level to plumb the measuring lines.  I double and triple checked my clearance.

For the low sensors, I installed them in the black plastic trim area.  Perhaps I should’ve gone lower, but this seemed to be a good compromise of keeping them at the recommended 12” minimum height.  I drilled these first and actually used the drill for a metal bumper, so I had to install the rubber grommet retainers.  No big deal…they fit nice and snug.  And no painting required!

I painted the two mounted in the bumper with some white enamel paint.  I looked at trying to exactly match the pearl, but the would’ve required spending $75-100 on a multi-step paint.  Close enough.  Finish them off with some rubbing compound and a little wax.

The wiring part came next…and this was not easy.  I drove up on some ramps and removed one of the under covers.  This required removing 14 or 20 clips and a couple of bolts.  Not hard, just watch out for dirt dropping in your face!  I didn’t get any good pictures of this part of the process, but here are the clips and the cover, so you can get the idea.  This allows access for the wiring.

To get the wiring to my holes in the bumper, I used a piece of stiff wire to which I taped the ends of the wiring harness and fed them from below to the hole in the bumper.  I used a pickup tool or pliers to grab the end of the harness I was feeding from below.

Now for the part that took me hours to figure out.  I needed to get the harness through the firewall, but I really didn’t want to be drilling holes, mainly because there’s just not much room to work.  After messing around for hours, I finally determined I could shove the harness through the side of one of the big wiring harness grommets.  Here are some pictures of this from the firewall side.  Of course, you have to have access on the cabin side as well.

This first one shows how I was able to lift up the side of the grommet and, using a long screwdriver, pull it away from the edge enough to shove the harness through.  You can see the grommet that was on the wiring harness that would be intended to fit in a drilled hole.

Here’s another shot showing more of the large factory wiring harness grommet.  The red wire is my trailer hitch power wire I ran when installing my trailer hitch wiring.

And here’s another shot.  There is a factory plastic clamp (unused) that I commandeered as part of the wiring harness retention system.  I subsequently secured the harness with wire ties.

To access the cabin side of things, you can remove some trim pieces to gain access.  There are basically four trim pieces I removed.

The driver’s dashboard lower cover.  It just pulls away when you pull in the clip areas.  No screws to remove.

Here are some pics of the back side of the dashboard lower cover so you can see the white clips and the connector locations.

The driver’s kick panel.  Pull it toward the passenger side to remove the clips.

The door sill trim piece comes off by pulling straight up.  Not sure if you really need to remove this or not.

The side cover for running the wire for the display.

Location of the clips on this cover.

With the cover removed you can easily run the display wire to my location of choice.

This is my display location, before it was stuck down with the included double-sided tape.

Here’s the final location.  Very unobtrusive and out of the way.

To be able to turn the whole thing off, should it decide to beep randomly (and to account for taking it through car washes), I installed the included switch in the right hand blank.  The blank pulls out and I did some drilling and modification of it to allow the switch to snap in.  Again, you can’t even see this after installation.

 

After it was all hooked up I did some testing.  I used a small Pelican case as my target.  Here are the display readouts along with the associated tape measure “read out.”

The sensor is actually a 2-3 inches back.

This is the measurement to the bumper.  Anything less than 12 inches causes the display to beep constantly…as in “don’t go any further!”

Pretty accurate.  About 22” inches from the driver’s side.

At about 30 inches from the passenger side.

Right in front.

Measured from the license plate…that sticks out about 3-4” from the sensor location.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the accuracy.

I’ve owned a 2002 Prius, a 2005 Prius, a 2010 Prius and my wife now has a 2017 Prius Prime.  They have all had trailer hitches installed for carrying bikes and towing my little 5’ x 8’ trailer for those Home Depot runs.  But now since we’ve joined the PHEV ranks, I recently expanded our PHEV fleet with the addition of a Honda Clarity.  Unlike the Prius Prime, there is only one manufacturer of a trailer hitch for this car (at least at this point in time).  Torklift has an Ecohitch (Part numbers: x7377 (2”), x7378 (1¼”)) that is on the pricey end of what I would normally pay for a hitch, but it seems to be well made and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, so I bought one.  It took a couple of weeks to get it since it was around the Christmas holidays and their site said they were experiencing a “high order volume.”  Good for them!

The hitch comes with a set of printed color instructions that are pretty good, but no one ever seems to get enough pictures for me.  I like pictures, so here’s my contribution to this project, should you choose to accept it.

As an overview, you need to remove the two tailights so you can remove the bumper facsia (bumper cover) to gain access to the bumper crash bar.  The hitch mounts underneath the bumper crash bar with new longer bolts that are supplied.

From tool standpoint, you’ll need:

• Phillips screwdriver (misc screws)
• Torx screwdriver (bumper cover screws)
• 8mm socket (for taillights)
• Flat screwdriver (for loosening pop rivets and trim panel fasteners)
• Needlenosed pliers (for squeezing wire stay to remove it)

Begin by opening the trunk and removing six fasteners (three on each side) that hold the fabric trunk panels.  This should take about five minutes.

After these fasteners are removed you need to remove the wear molding that extends across the trunk.  Begin by removing the trunk latch cover.  It unsnaps pretty easily, so don’t overdo it.

Here’s a blurry closeup of the trunk latch cover.

Here’s a view of the fasteners that hold the wear molding in place so you can get an idea of where to pull up.  If you aren’t familiar with these, sometimes it can feel like you’re going to break something when you pull up.  That shouldn’t happen on new plastic parts.  When you reinstall, you just rap them with your hand to pop them back in place.

Just another pic of the wear molding.

After peeling back the fabric panels, you should be able to get to the back of the taillights.  Here you will need to remove four 8mm nuts, disconnect the connector and then simultaneously press both clips to remove the taillight.  The taillight should slide out directly towards the back.  You’ll notice in the pictures there is a fastener on the forward part of the taillight that fits over a clip.  It should slide off from this connector.

Here’s a back view of the forward part of the taillight showing the sliding connector.  I actually popped the connector out because I didn’t know it should slide on and off.

Here’s a removed taillight.

Here’s a pic of the empty taillight socket.

Here are a couple of pics of the back of the taillight locations.  You can see the connector and the holes where the taillight studs and clips go.  This is on the driver’s side.

This is on the passenger’s side.

The next couple of steps are pretty straightforward.  There are two big black torx screws that need to be removed from bumper fascia.  So, that means you’ll need a torx screwdriver to remove them!

Now its time to remove the phillips screws from each wheel well.  If you don’t have splash guards (mud flaps) you’ll probably have two on each side.  If you have splash guards there will be an extra three screws holding the splash guards in place and a panel fastener on the bottom of the splash guard.  Remove all these screws.  I don’t have a picture of this.

Next, under the bottom of the bumper cover are six (or eight) panel fasteners.  If you removed spash guards you already removed two.  You’ll have to lay down on your back and use your screwdriver to pry the heads up so the “pop rivet” panel fasteners will come out.  This picture shows them after they’ve been removed (along with the crash bar).

Now comes the scary part.  From the wheel well area grasp the bumper fascia at one corner and pull firmly up and away from the vehicle.  The fasteners should pop loose as shown in the following pictures.

You have to put your hand in the crevise and pull!  Pop, pop, pop it goes!

Keep going…you’ll get to the fasteners you can see that were beneath the taillights.

Once you get all this loose, the bumper cover should come off and reveal the crash bar, which is held in place with six bolts.

Disconnect the wire stay from its mount point by squeezing the backside of it with a pair of needlenose pliers.  This has to be moved aside as there is not enough clearance behind the trailer hitch for it to remain in its original location.  I wrapped a little extra tape around it just to prevent any future chafing.

Here’s another pic of the wire stay removed from its original mount point.

Now you can mount the hitch behind the crash bar and install the six bolts.  Torque to 85 ft-lbs.

To allow room for the bumper cover to be reinstalled, you need to trim a section out of it that is located around the receiver.  The section to be removed is approximately 4-1/2” wide and 4” deep.

Here are the recommended dimensions for material removal.

Another view of the bumper cover after the material has been removed.

Some pictures showing the fit after the trim job.

I also pulled a power wire through the grommet and tied it off under the car for any future power requirements for the trunk area (e.g. for a trailer wiring harness).

Now with the assistance of your helper, you can place the bumper cover back over everything a button it up.  As they say, put everything back in the reverse order of how you took it apart!

It should look something like this when you are done.

I’m re-posting these instructions from elearnaid.com with a little clean up as I just used them on my 2002 and 2005 Prii.  Additionally, Art’s Automotive has some good info on repairing the MFD (multi-function display), aka EMV. 

Update 2015-01-26

Oh, by the way, I found you can enable this mode while driving (so far, on my 2005), so it doesn’t appear the parking brake is a requirement to enable inspection mode.

The original instructions from elearnaid.com, with a little cleanup

• The transmission should be in Park with the ignition off.
• Engage the parking brake (this seems to be an interlock of sorts).
• Turn the ignition on
• (2001 – 2003) Turn ignition switch to ON (do not start the engine).
• 2004+ Press the Start button twice (don’t depress the brake and start the engine).
• Push Display button.
• (2001 – 2003) Top rocker to the right of the radio that is labeled “Display.”
• 2004+ Top right button next to the screen that is labeled “Display.”
• "DISPLAY" will now appear in the upper left corner of your screen.)
• Push on the upper left (1) of the display just inside the box, withdraw, push on the lower left of the display (2) and withdraw (see picture for hidden button locations).  Do this slowly and deliberately.
• Do this three times (or more). Keep trying until the screen changes. If the word "Display" in the upper left hand corner of the screen goes away hit the display switch again.

• Push on Menu in upper right of display screen.
• Push on Display Check
• Push on Vehicle Signal Check
• You will see the 12 volt voltage displayed.
• With no electrical accessories on including lights the voltage should be fluctuate between 12.2 and 11.9. The lower the voltage, the less of a charge your battery currently has. If the voltage is low do not proceed as the load test might totally discharge your battery. (If you see a voltage around 13.5-13.8 you are seeing voltage from the high voltage battery being converted to around 13.5-13.8 in an attempt to recharge your battery. This normally does not occur till after you start the engine but might occur earlier if the battery is very drained.)
• You can also test the battery by turning on the headlights, rear window heater and the heater fan. For a new battery the voltage would be around 11.3. If the voltage drops below 10.2 it should definitely be replaced. For voltages in between the lower the voltage, the lower current charge of your battery.

Here are some of the screens displayed on the 2002 Prius.

Here are pictures of the 2005 Prius display.

 

Audio H/U (Head Unit?) says CHEK.  Press the CHEK button to view the codes and clear them.

A bunch of old codes.  Who knows when they occurred?

Pressing some more CHEK buttons.

Pressing and holding the Code CLR (clear) button to erase the stored codes.

Codes cleared!

More codes to clear!

Display with the headlights turned off.

Display with the headlights lights turned on.

This has been bugging me for some time now.  My volume control is “flaky.”  When I turn it down, it either doesn’t do anything or it starts getting louder.  By messing with it, I could make it go down, but not before it was so loud I thought I would blow the speakers.  Time to fix it!

My search found this post on Allpar.com by by Jeremy Schrag, which seemed like a good starting point.  However, it was just a starting point!  I had to do quite a bit of disassembly to get to the volume control.  My deck is a six disk CD changer/cassette deck combo.  It doesn’t have a single disk CD in it.  So, of course, my volume control was harder to get to.

After removing the radio (not hard, 10 minutes, be careful and don’t bust your trim), you must remove the knobs as Jeremy describes (20 seconds).  Then remove the four screws holding the faceplate on (two screws on each side). 

Carefully pry the faceplate off (after removing the four screws), as there are clips on the top and bottom that must be released.

Once you get the faceplate off, you’ll see the first circuit board you’ll have to remove.  There are four tabs (bent) that hold it in place.  Two are soldered.  You’ll have to de-solder them and bend all of them straight to remove.  Here the trick!  At the bottom of the cassette hole, there is a connector that this board plugs in to.  You must slowly wiggle it free from the connector.  Take your time and be patient!  See the other photos.

Here’s the connector that has pins on the back of the circuit board that stab into it.

Fuzzy photo showing the connector pins on the back of the circuit board.

All removed!

Now you’d like to remove the nut holding the pot (potentiometer) and take it out, except there isn’t enough room in the back to remove it.  So you have to remove the top circuit board.

Remove the top of the radio chassis by removing the two screws on the back and you can see what I mean.  The shaft is too long to push it back through and remove it.  No problem.

Remove three screws on the heatsink side and four screws from the back side.  Un-bend the tabs.  Now you can start carefully prying the board out.  Take your time!

There are more pins that mate with a connector on the back side of the board, so you’ll have to carefully wiggle the board loose from them. 

Here’s a picture of the mating pins.  Note the connector for the POT that has been removed.

 

All removed.  Pay attention to the thermal grease on the heatsink and don’t wipe it all off.

Now you can get to the POT connector and unplug it.  Remove the nut from the POT and the whole assembly will come out.

Here’s your potentiometer assembly.  Now for the disassembly…

Pry the “Y” tabs using a small jewelers screwdriver.  Once the are all straightened you should be able to separate the halves.

Time to use your contact cleaner (I also used a small eraser on the disk contacts).  Don’t mess up the spring contacts!

Here’s the contact disk removed and cleaned.  I used “professional” contact cleaner.

Now assemble the halves and pry the “Y” tabs back.

Plug the POT back in and assemble it to the chassis with its nut.

Be careful not to over tighten and break anything!

Put the top circuit board back, using your screws and tabs.

Make sure the connector pins line up and seat correctly.

I put it back in place by angling it in, insuring the heatsink tabs were inserted prior to the connector being engaged.

Put all your screws back on the back side.

Put the top on and secure it with its two screws.

Put the front circuit board on and engage its connector.

Bend all four tabs and solder the two that were unsoldered previously.

Put the faceplate back on and secure it with its four screws and you’re all done!

 

 

 

This is how I replaced the door lock actuator on my 2002 Prius.  I took lots of pictures, so I hope this helps others. 

I purchased the door lock actuator from a Toyota dealer on line for about $85 + $12 shipping, so it was < $100.  Some folks have actually split the old actuator apart and replace the electric motor inside. 

Start by removing the door panel.  This is not hard, but it can be tricky. 

First, push in the center pin of the retainer on the outside edge of the door panel.  This will allow you to easily remove the fastener.

 

This is actually a picture of me installing the fastener, so you can see the pin is pulled out for installation.  However, to remove it you simply push it in and it allows the fastener to be removed.

Here’s a blurry picture of the final installation.

Remove the trim piece in the corner of the window by simply pulling it off.  You can see the location of the fasteners in the photos.

Notice there is a clip at the bottom (hard to see).

There should be a little clip that can easily be removed from under the cover.

 

 

Open the screw cover in the door opening latch handle area.

Remove the screw.

Notice that pull handle trim has a catch that slides into the plastic piece mounted to the door.  It also has “ears” that clip it in place.  This can be somewhat difficult to remove.  If you move the door panel and/or the trim towards the rear of the car, you should be able to slide it out of its latches and hook receptacle.

 

 

 

Remove the screw in the door grab handle recess.

You should be able to remove the entire switch assembly. 

Note the fastener on the front of the switch assembly.  This should pull straight up.

 

Now you can start unclipping the door panel.  Note that I used my hands and some plastic pry tools…you don’t want to scratch things up. 

Note the location of the clips.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully you can lift the door panel up and off the door by this point.  I had some difficulty with the door pull handle trim, but be patient and don’t break it!

Now remove the metal bracket.

 

 

You should be able to peel the plastic away and expose the cover.  Remove three screws.

Remove the cables from the clip.

Now we’re going to remove the entire latch assembly from inside the door with the lock actuator attached.

There are actuator two rods that have plastic clips.  You simply push up on the plastic clip to unlock it from the rod and then you can remove the rod from its hole.

 

Remove the torx fasteners that hold the door latch in place.

Remove the bracket bolt.

If you remove these nuts, you can swing the window rail track out of the way so the latch and actuator assembly can easily be removed.

 

As you remove the latch assembly, you should be able to unclip the electrical connector from the actuator.  Greasy and sweaty…

Now you can remove it from the top hole.

Remove the plastic cover by removing this screw.

Pull the cover off exposing cables

Remove the two attaching screws.

You should now be able to remove the cable and the ball/socket lever.  Note how it fits together while you are removing it.  It’s pretty simple, but make sure you get everything oriented the correct way when installing.

Old and new.

Now see if you can do it all backwards to install it.

Testing, 1…2…3.

It definitely pays to understand the quality of the parts you are putting in your car.  If you think about it, auto manufacturers go to great lengths to insure the cars they build have as few issues as possible, as those problems many times result in warranty claims.  We know the Japanese have been famous for their attention to quality and I’ll give you an example.

I replaced the water pump on my 1997 Sebring convertible at the same time I replaced the timing belt, even though the original water pump was fine.  This was at about 107K miles and 8 years (9/29/05).  Well, about 6 years later and < 40K miles (this is no longer my daily driver), the weep hole started weeping on the replacement, indicating the shaft seal is likely leaking on the water pump. 

The replacement pump was only the front half of the pump and was procured at NAPA.  This is the standard way that most water pumps for the Sebring are purchased, unless you buy a dealer pump.  In the case of the dealer pump, you get the whole thing.  But oh my, the cost!

Here’s the $$.  My replacement Napa water pump cost $79.44 in September 2005.  My replacement is a Paraut water pump and was purchased online at PartsGeek.com for $123.95.  Paraut appears to be one of the OEM suppliers to Mitsubishi (source of the 2.5 liter engine).  The other supplier is AISIN.  Both supply the same water pump under part number W0133-1614345 (MD 978743).  So, for $123.95 – $79.44 = $44.51 I could’ve avoided doing this again, or perhaps used the pump I removed and worried about it later.  Oh, by the way, I ordered the pump on Monday and it arrived on Wednesday.  It shipped from Plano Parkway in Plano, Texas, about 5 miles from my house!

I’ve had my car apart for the last 3+ weeks (only working on it on the weekends) and had a heck of a time getting the old pump off the inlet tube (pushes over an o-ring on the inlet tube that was majorly stuck).  Overall, the job is a big job.  I’d say for me, only doing this every 6 or 8 years, takes me 10-15 hours, plus all my parts procurement time.  The $44.51 would’ve been money well spent, don’t ‘cha think?

Here’s what a real water pump looks like!  Notice it comes with the o-ring for the inlet tube and a real metal gasket.

Just look at all the lovely machined aluminum.  This is the back side of the pump housing that is not normally supplied on most aftermarket pumps.

 

Take it from me, spend the money!

Here are some measurements of the o-ring that fits on the inlet tube.  They don’t quite add up, but you get the idea.

2012-01-24

I found myself needing to revisit a potential leak from the water pump and found the instructions I had written several years ago when I replaced my timing belt and water pump in my Sebring.  These instructions were originally posted on the Sebring Club web site at the following address.

http://www.sebringclub.net/diagrams/96-00-timingbelt-waterpump-replacement.pdf

I’ll be updating them as I do some more work with, hopefully, some better photos.

Original post:

I was motivated to do this work because of a bearing growling sound emanating from the engine. It would grind at low rpms when the engine was cold and then only be noticeable when you initially put on the gas (very quick growling sound). I figured it was the water pump bearing, the tensioner pulley bearing or the idler pulley bearing. At 104,000 miles, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to replace some stuff, anyway.

There were two main reasons that I did this work myself. One, I am a do-it-yourselfer that doesn’t shy away from most any task. Two, I’m cheap! Another motivation was I got several quotes for replacing the timing belt and water pump. The lowest I got was about $600 (and I think it would have been higher). The highest was from the dealer…$1100! All I heard from everyone was how hard this was, so I was thinking I would have to put out some bucks to get ‘er done, but luckily, I reconsidered.

To start this job, jack up the car and support it with a jack stand. I always use the jack and a jack stand for safety. Remove the right wheel so you can get to everything.

You probably notice the smaller jack that is under the engine. This is used for supporting the engine when you remove the right engine mount. Removing the right engine mount is one of the first things you have to do.

I didn’t get a picture of this, but you need to remove the lower plastic splash shield that covers the a/c compressor, power steering pump, etc. It is held in place with 2 plastic rivets and 3 plastic barbed push fasteners. I was able to reuse all the fasteners when I went to reinstall it.

Take off the power steering pump belt and the a/c-alternator belt. To remove the p/s belt, loosen the bolts and it should come off easily. Notice that the p/s pump has a ½” square socket on it. You can put a ½” ratchet or breaker bar in the socket to hold tension when you reinstall the belt. The a/c belt is removed by loosening the idler pulley bolt slightly and then loosening the tensioning bolt. It’s very easy to reinstall.

 

Remove the radiator overflow tank by taking out the two bolts and disconnecting the hose. Unbolt the a/c drier (one 10mm bolt) so you can move it out of the way. I also removed the two bolts that hold the power steering reservoir so it could be moved out of the way of the right timing belt cover. There are 3 bolts that need to be removed to separate the engine mount. You’ll be able to tell you have the engine supported correctly as the bolts will come out easily.

Here’s a photo showing the p/s reservoir swung out of the way.

Next, remove the two bolts that hold the engine mount to the frame. This is done from underneath the car. Now you should be able to remove the engine mount from the top.

Remove the 4 bolts that attach the engine mounting block to the engine. The engine mounting block should be easily removed.

More engine mounting block bolts, shown from below.

Now its time to remove the flywheel pulley. There is a 22mm bolt that holds it on…real tightly! I had to use a chain wrench to hold the pulley while using a ½” breaker bar. I’m sure there is a tool for holding the flywheel pulley, but I didn’t have it. I tried using one of those rubber strap wrenches, but it just wouldn’t hold tightly enough.

Here’s a photo of the flywheel pulley. I actually put the pulley back on temporarily to take this photo. It slips easily on and off the end of the crankshaft. Just be sure to align the pin.

Here’s the wrench arrangement I used. I had to be very careful not to mar the pulley with the chain wrench. Man, was it on tight!

Now on to removing the timing belt covers. There are three of them. You need to remove the upper left first (near the front of the vehicle), then the lower and then the upper right (near the firewall).

Here’s the lower cover.

Here’s the left cover. Don’t have a good picture of the right cover, but it’s underneath the power steering fluid reservoir.

After you get the timing covers removed, take the time to line up all the timing marks. The crankshaft has a mark that lines up with a mark on the engine block. The cam pulleys have timing marks on them that line up with “V” notches.

Here’s the crankshaft and its timing marks.

Here’s a picture (not very good) of the timing marks on the left cam. Mine had a little bit of white paint on the mark on the cam pulley. The valve cover has a notch in it that should line up with the mark on the cam pulley. There’s also one on the right cam, but I failed to get a good picture of it. Picture, if you can, a similar set of marks under the power steering reservoir.

The hardest part (and I do mean the hardest) had little to do with the timing belt. It had to do with the power steering pump bracket. In order to remove the right timing belt cover (nearest the firewall) you need to unbolt the power steering pump from its bracket (3 bolts) and take 3 of the 4 bolts out of the power steering pump bracket, and swing it out of the way to provide clearance for removing the cover. Sounds easy, right? This was the most difficult task for me since the top two bolts are in a very tight clearance area. Here are a couple of photos that show what you are up against. It was hard just to get some photos that show much.

Important!!! There are two bolts on the top of the p/s pump bracket. You only need to completely remove 1 (towards the passenger side) and loosen the other. This will allow enough movement of the bracket to swing it out of the way of the right timing belt cover. Unfortunately, you can’t even see the tops of the bolts from this picture. I’d have to have a fiber optic camera to show you the heads of the bolts. Use your imagination!

By the way, I’m about 6’-1” 220 lbs and was able to put my hands up in that area to get to the bolts, so someone with smaller hands will likely have an easier time.

Here’s another one showing where the lower two bolts are on the p/s pump bracket and the 3 bolts that hold the p/s pump to the bracket.

And here’s one showing my hand and the wrench working on one of the hard-to-reach bolts. It’s one of those situations where you have to work the bolt a little at a time and, if your hand will fit, finish it the rest of the way with your fingertips. Sorry for the focusing problem.

I have a garage full of tools (well, actually TWO garages full of tools), so I thought I would have most of the tools needed to do the job. Turned out I still needed to make one tool, but hey, now I have it. Here it is:

It’s made out of a piece of 1/8” x 2” steel bar (could have been 1/8” x 1-1/2”) and two #6 hex standoffs. I measured the distance between the holes on the tensioner pulley and punched and drilled the holes for the screws to hold the standoffs. After determining that the original length of the bar caused some interference problems, I cut out a square 3/8” hole so I could put a socket wrench on it. I could have cut it off to be 1” long, but I was lazy and didn’t want to get the hacksaw out again!

This tool is used to preload the tensioner pulley with 3.3 ft-lbs of torque prior to releasing the hydraulic tensioner. Took me a little while to figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the shop manual, but after careful studying, I finally got it. There are two holes in the tensioner pulley that accept the #6 male ends of the studs. Basically, you loosen the tensioner pulley bolt and put 3.3 ft-lbs of CCW (counter-clockwise) torque against the timing belt and then tighten the pulley bolt. This is all done with the hydraulic tensioner in a compressed mode. To compress the tensioner, remove it by taking out the two bolts. The, using your handy vise on your workbench (everyone has one, right?) compress the tensioner. I suppose you might be able to use a C-clamp to compress it, but I’ve never tried this. The hydraulic tensioner is held compressed with a pin (small allen wrench or cotter pin). The pin is removed after you have preloaded the pulley with the 3.3 ft-lbs of torque and tightened the bolt. You know if you have correctly torque the tensioner pulley as you should be able to remove your “pin” without any excessive force, i.e., the forces are balanced between the tensioner and the pulley.

To remove the old belt you can loosen the bolt on the tensioner pulley and then remove the bolts on the hydraulic tensioner.

Installing the belt involves lining up all the timing marks and installing the belt over the pulleys in the order specified in the instructions. The instructions that came with the timing belt kit didn’t match up with the instructions in the shop manual. It appears either set of instructions should work.

I used some plastic clips that I got at Harbor Freight to hold the belt on the pulleys while threading over the pulleys in the correct order, as specified by the instructions.

I’ve included a scan of the instructions that came with the timing belt kit I purchased at NAPA.