mgiara

Hey all,

Seeing more 'kits' than single belts.

The kits contain two pulleys and the tensioner in addition to the belt.

Makes me wonder if I'm breaking "good practice" by trying to just replace a belt.

I'm at around 91,000 miles and not sure what work was done by the previous owners. That's probably the sentence that will make the decision for me. I bought it at 89,000.

CaliBenzDriver

Replace the whole kit at once is cheap money well spent.

Old tensioner is what overheats the slipping belt that evaporates the grease out of the idlers.

Specially the idler above A/C Compressor where belt gets heated up.

TwoC400s

Which engine?

TimC300

My M272 had around 130,000 miles when I noticed the belt looked like it was bouncing, seemed to be caused by the tensioner. I replaced the tensioner with a Gates brand, got a Continental belt and INA upper idler pulley. I did not replaced the lower smooth idler pulley at that time.

Recently I bought an inexpensive stethoscope and was playing around with it, put it on the idler pulley bolts as the engine was running and the idler pulley I replaced was quiet, when I placed it on the idler pulley i had not replaced it was very loud like a skate board wheel. So im currently looking for a good price on an INA smooth pulley, looks like they are around $25.

For me it was cheaper buying the parts seperate and not in a kit. The Mercedes tensioner is stamped gates right on it, so thats why I went with Gates, I found it for a much lower price than Mercedes.