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Today on the way to pittsburg i lost my power steering/water pump belt on the interstate....luckily i was just about 2 miles from the mazda shop located on the way so i turned on the heater to help and coasted the car as much as possible. A lil coolant leaked but not enough to make damage i believe on the seals.

Anyways i was looking for the porblem and noticed the belt was gone but is there supposed to be a tensioner located behind the harmonic balancer on the smooth pulley for that belt lay-out? i noticed that the pulley is able to slide on a track but there wasnt a bolt, the guy at the shop said there wasn't but it seems as if there should be a tensioner there. Hopefully one of you guys can help and know what i'm talking about. I plan on putting another belt on tommorrow and seeing if it'll stay on.

Yeah mine fell out, i ahd to get as replacement from a probe gt.

should there be a lil metal lip to keep the belt from sliding off like on the smooth tensioner part for the alternotr? i see the wheel is smooth but no lip at the edge to keep the belt from sliding off. just wondering.

Nope, mine's smooth. I broke my tensioner bolt this weekend while trying to change my water pump. The wrecking yard had a replacement but wasn't willing to help me get it off as they were about to close (the engine was resting on it). Thankfully a guy at work used a tap & die set to modify a bolt and then welded it in and made it work, sorta. Oh, and that's not a recommendation to weld on this part. Most of it is aluminum with magnesium in it, so it'll sparkle prettily while melting. .

ah, i won't weld on it...i think i'll go and put the belt back on, run the car a lil to see if it moves and if it doesnt i'll bring it back home and order the replacement bolt through mazda monday. Do yo guys think the 4 cylinder would have this bolt? there are 2 of them here at a local junkyard?? ( and anyone who needs body parts or anything off a 4 cylinder let me know and i can prob get them and ship them)

my car has 211,000 miles and i've never replaced this belt, while replacing the harmonic balancer the belt wasn't put on right and i tried to start it once while the belt was 1/2 off the track with the grooves so i think this weakened it and it just snapped and came off? would you guys thinkk this is an old belt and just broke or something went bad?

So i went and put the belt on today, as i started and ran the car the belt wanted to move over about an 1/8th of an inch and run one groove over the rear pulley, i placed it back on 3-4 more times and every time it would slide off a notch. Do you guys think that the after-market pulley is brining the belt over and off alignment? any clues to what i should do about this?