undertaker

My went south last week and since it was replaced it feels as if my steering wheel is tighter(better handling?)or is it my imagination? And when you have your belts replaced(serpentine)is the mechanic supposed to change the tensioner or at least notice if it is going bad. THis all happend one week after my 120,000 tb service and I had to bring the car back in. Any ideas?

RKA

Usually when those tensioners go bad, you'll hear a rattling or squealing sound. If you didn't have any before the TB service, there was no need to replace it (although at 120K, a good mechanic should have suggested you just replace it as preventative maintenance, since there is no addt'l labor involved to do it in conjunction with the TB service).

Anyway, if the tensioner wasn't working, the belt might slip, ultimately resulting in less power steering boost (heavier steering feel). What you're describing is exactly the opposite (heavier feel after tensioner is replaced). I'm not suggesting that the new tensioner is failing (you'd know it if it was), just that you're observations don't seem to make sense.

undertaker

Iam not good at describing symptoms ,but the wheel just feels a tad heavier than usual. One week after the tb service I started to hear a clicking noise from that area of the car and when I looked down into the fan/belt area, the belt was literally coming off the pulley(unbelievable!).So i Bring the car back to him and the belt comes off,en route to the shop ,temp gauge goes north and car overheats. have car towed to him and that was the diagnosis(serp tensioner).I am no mechanic, but I think he should've seen that weak tensioner, especially since he changed the belt as part of the TB service.

Speedy72t

depends on the mentality of the mechanic. Some mechanics don't believe in spending your money until the part is actually broken and some believe in preventative maintenance. I wouldn't be too upset at the mechanic, but those things do fail constantly.