[Shotimes] Re: Smoking Engine

[Tom Leeth]

Steve, the previous guidance was right on.  Pull the serpentine belt and look
(feel) for a bad  idler pulley bearing.  The belt is most likely being pulled
past an idler pulley that can't keep up at high RPM due to a worn and about to
fail bearing, hence lots of friction and heating of the belt.  The bad bearing
could be in the tensioner pulley, the idler pulley between the crank and the
A/C (the lower pulley), or the idler pulley between the crank and the
alternator (the upper pulley).  If this has gone on very long you will should
replace the belt as well as the bad idler pulley.

There is some chance the bad bearing is in the cam belt idler pulley with the
cam belt being over heated (causing the smoke), but the accessory belt idler
pulleys are the more common failures - and they are a lot easier to replace.

Regards,

Tom Leeth