1998 Nissan Altima Damaged Idler Pulley?

My friend's '98 altima broke down last night. When I first looked at
it, and from the symptoms he described (screeching noise, especially
when turning or going slow, then a loud noise and the charge light went
on, heat stopped working, and power steering went out) it sounded like
his ps pump had gone bad and broke the belt. When I got to the scene
we looked under the hood and the belt was intact but had come off of
the idler pulley. I gave him a ride home and we towed it back today.
Upon closer inspection, the ps pump seems fine (turns easily by hand)
as does the alternator and water pump, but the idler pulley which I now
see bolts directly to the engine block at the top, is broken. The bolt
attaching it to the block is completely loose and the pulley probably
would have fallen out of the compartment while he was driving except
that the bolt is long enough and there is so little clearance that it
hits the side of the engine compartment before coming completely out of
the engine so the pulley can't fall out. Is this a simple part to
replace? It looks like we'd have to pull the entire engine out just to
get access to it, is that true, or can we just pull off the wheel
compartment or something else? Thanks for the help,

fowdawgg at gmail <dot> com

I don’t know if you have figured out yet but all you have to do is
remove the engine mount (three bolts and one long bolt + nut) . Then
remove the three bolts of the idler pulley bracket (2 x 10m and 1 x
12m).

"fowdawgg" wrote:

My friend's '98 altima broke down last night. When I first
looked at
it, and from the symptoms he described (screeching noise,
especially
when turning or going slow, then a loud noise and the charge
light went
on, heat stopped working, and power steering went out) it
sounded like
his ps pump had gone bad and broke the belt. When I got to
the scene
we looked under the hood and the belt was intact but had come
off of
the idler pulley. I gave him a ride home and we towed it back
today.
Upon closer inspection, the ps pump seems fine (turns easily
by hand)
as does the alternator and water pump, but the idler pulley
which I now
see bolts directly to the engine block at the top, is broken.
The bolt
attaching it to the block is completely loose and the pulley
probably
would have fallen out of the compartment while he was driving
except
that the bolt is long enough and there is so little clearance
that it
hits the side of the engine compartment before coming
completely out of
the engine so the pulley can't fall out. Is this a simple
part to
replace? It looks like we'd have to pull the entire engine
out just to
get access to it, is that true, or can we just pull off the
wheel
compartment or something else? Thanks for the help,

fowdawgg at gmail <dot> com

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