PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

It was a nice day today so I decided to detail the bonne. After a nice engine bay cleaning I decided to start the car and let her idle in the driveway for a few minutes. I was just about to shut the car off when I heard this God aweful noise come from under the hood.

I didn't know what to expect so I shut the car off and slowly opened the hood. Close inspection found a shattered water pump tensioner pulley. $45 later and all was good.

I kept thinking, "man, this could have been bad had I been doing 75 down the freeway with the music up" as is usually the case.

Just a heads up to all the GXP owners out there. It is always a good idea to inspect these things on a regular basis.

Glad you caught it at home!

How labour intensive was the job?

Only took about 15 minutes once I had the part, Jerry. Three 10mm bolts to remove the pulley cover and one 12mm bolt for the tensioner pulley.

Good time for it to happen Norm. Glad you caught it and got it fixed.

No kidding, Ed. Could have been bad had I been on the freeway 60 miles away from home.

This happened to me Friday... I was going 75 mph on the way home from school. I looked down and the temp was at 280 (scan gauge said 250). I pulled over and the cam pulley was chewed up, the belt was chewed up, and the tensioner sounded like It had rocks in it. I was able to get the belt back on and limp home. $120 later it's fixed.

Do you know if it ended up solving this issue? http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 34745.html

If it did then my tensioner isn't far off either.

Jerry, funny thing is that I can remember hearing this same noise a few days before this happened. Basically about 300 miles before it went out.

I didn't even think about that, I'll go listen to it.

What was the mileage on your GXP when this happened?????

The noise is gone, but that noise had been going on for along time. Maybe the tensioner was bad for that long? My car is at ~68,000 miles.

All I know is I had the noise only a few days before it went out. I don't think you have anything to worry about Seth. That car of yours is still a baby. I think at 188k things should be breaking. lol

My 03 is showing her age at 190k too, Norm. Broken door panels, weird steering feel, etc. Not aging well anymore...

I rolled over 190k km (117,800 mi) today, still a baby relative to you Norm but definitely cause for concern. I hope it's my tensioner and not the WP itself...

Wow. 188,000 and 117,000 miles and they look that good?! I've had my '05 GXP for exactly 1 year and it just turned over
47,000 (a boy among men). Once a month I crawl all over it and take an afternoon to check everything I think could be
a problem (thanks to this website!) - Knock on wood; no descrepancies found - yet. Cudos to
all who contribute their experiences via this site; the info is invaluable!