Chevrolet Traverse Questions - 2011 traverse idler pulley & tensioner replacement (2024)

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I'll answer my own question. Three bolts for the tensioner and the middle one won't come out by itself. It comes with the tensioner after removing the other two. And to remove the idler pulley, takes the two mount nuts off on the front of the alternator, remove the studs with a 7 mmm. Then your alternator will move around enough to get the pulley out. Pain in the butt!

You gonna have to with drop or raise the engine alittle to remove bolt that’s the only way I see I tried myself and ended with the same results as you

there are three bolts on tensioner. but only two need to be removed. third come out when u pull the tensioner. I know this is old post but maybe i can save the next guy a whole bunch of grief and bloody knuckle,Not to mention time. If you dont know your way around a car do not attempt to fix this save yourself the time and fork out the money or sell it cause its gonna get expensive real fast. Better yet just Run Run Away fast! Nothing on this car is easy to fix, nothing on this car will you replace without having to replace something else.Never easy.Never cheap!This car is the dumbest design i have ever seen. i want to smack the s**t out of whoever designed /engineered this pos. They took S**T in one hand, wish in the other hand to a whole new level. Clearly they have never picked up a wrench or attempted a repair, or even open a hood on a car. anything that needs done to maintain is in the worst place possible. even to change a headlight bulb you have to remove things that dont releate to the issue/part. This exact issue above made me go from looking for reasons to work a car to never wanting to fix anything again! that being said, I was able to change out alternator in harbor freight parking lot in the dark. most of us i guess if reading this probably dont have a fancy lift and Unless you want to remove a bunch of crap, then go in from wheel well and underneath. May need jackstands and jack depending on your bodysize. remove the belt by reasinig the tension from the tensioner. remove the plastic inner fender and boom you actually have room to see the bolts. the bottom bolt on alternator (i believe the idler pulley is there also) is like 6 inches long and you have maybe 2-3 inches til you hit the frame. no hole or cutout to slide bolt out. remove the belt. if you remove all other bolts and loosin that bottom as much as you can. then your able to wiggle the alternator and get enough angle the bolt will slide out. definitly would help if you had another person tohold the alternator from the top while you wiggle bolt out. IDC if you gotta wait 2 hours for someone then wait cause it makes all the difference. FYI the manual say you need to raise the motor to change the alternator.