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The bolt that holds the belt tensioner to the engine block broke on my wife's 2004 vibe. She took it to the dealer and they said that they need to drop the engine to get the piece of broken bolt out of the engine block. They want $1800 to fix this. Is this true?

I know the installation of the tensioner calls to jack the engine up an inch or two to gain access. I'd think all they need to do is raise it a little to get a bolt extractor in there.Shop around, the dealer is the last place you want to take your car for service after the warranty expires.

That sounds like a lot, but then it is dealer labor rates. In order to get the bolt out they would need to drill the bolt for an e-z out and my guess is they want to remove the engine so they can do it properly.For that price I would be tempted to try it myself, depending on your mechanical abilities. Worst case you drill out the bolt and replace it with a helicoil insert and new bolt. But I would look at a shop manual to see what needs to be done.

if you have the time, place, tools and patience then you can do it yourself.for this kind of job do you have faith in mr mechanic at the corner shop or the factory trained technicians who work on engines they know like the back of their hand?the belt tensioner job on the 1zz engine is already a really big pain in the ***; due to the minimal clearance in the engine compartment.unfortunately, your issue is this AND extraction of the broken bolt. removal of the engine is the only way i see this being repaired properly, and in a timely manner. only because part of the bolt is still stuck inside the block so the tensioner is stuck in place. w the stud still holding the tensioner there, there is no way either the tensioner or bolt are coming out w the engine still in the car.

Sad thing about dealers, and mechanic shops for that matter, is that they go by book hours. So if the shop hour book says it takes 20 hours, that is what they charge for a job. Even if their pro mechanic can do the job in 8 hours or whatever. I know a guy that could do 3 heater core replacements on cars in an 8 hour day, because he knew all the short cuts and the easy way to do it. The shop charged 6 hours for each job, so the shop got paid for 18 hours of work.Either way, it is your money. I would be tempted to try JB Weld before I would spend that kind of money on a repair like that.

Drilling into bolts is a ROYAL pain!!! Best tip I can give is to buy a set of LEFT HANDED drill bits and have atter! (Standard drill bits drill into the product in a clockwise manner, whereas using a left handed bit will drill into it in a counterclockwise manner. I use these at work, half the time the drill bit takes the bolt right out of the broken piece without having to use a bolt extractor... unless the bolt is loctited!)Can you get at the broken bolt by removing the wheel and splash shield?

The bolt that holds the belt tensioner to the engine block broke on my wife's 2004 vibe. She took it to the dealer and they said that they need to drop the engine to get the piece of broken bolt out of the engine block. They want $1800 to fix this. Is this true?

http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=46628???

Does anyone know what SIZE this bolt is before is was snapped in two? Or even better where i can get another..? This same situation happened to me.

Also how did this situation turn out for you, Mustang637?

Wow ! sorry to hear that. Was it the top bolt ??? I was going to replace the tensioner / piston myself but I couldnt remove the top bolt. When I put a wrench to it, I could see the bolt flex...so I backed off & left it alone. Im going to give it another try after I spray some penetrating fluid & let it soak for a couple of days.