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Saab 9-5 Serpentine Belt DIY — A Complete Step By Step Guide

saab 9-5 serpentine belt replacement thumbnail

In cars and other motor vehicles, power transmission elements such as belts are used to transfer power from the crankshaft to the rest of the motor. The serpentine belt, which is a flexible and efficient power transmission element, is arguably the most popular kind. Yet, these belts don’t last forever. The SAAB 9-5 serpentine belt, just like any other, has to be replaced periodically.

Failing to change the serpentine belt on time puts you at risk of losing power steering, battery charging, A/C and any other system that is driven by this type of belt. Today, we’ll walk you through the serpentine belt replacement procedure for SAAB 9-5. Let’s get to it!

Article updated on 08/10/21. Original publishing date 12/19/16

saab 9-5 serpentine belt replacement 1

How Often Should You Change the SAAB 9-5 Serpentine Belt?

Serpentine belts are built to be elastic. However, over time, this elastic feature gives way to brittleness as the belt begins to harden. As a result, cracks, cuts or damaged edges appear all over the surface of the serpentine belt.

Your SAAB’s serpentine belt must be checked every 20,000 miles or every 2 years. This is done visually and by touching the belt However, sometimes fine cracks may not be visible to the naked eye. The expected life of a serpentine belt is usually 50,000 miles or 5 years.

One of the more obvious signs that something is wrong with your accessory belt is an annoying whistling sound that gradually appears and originated from the engine bay. If you choose to ignore this sound, there’s a good chance you could end up with a dead car on the side of the road.

A broken accessory belt means a complete loss of power to the alternator, the power steering pump, the A/C system and many other systems on the car. It’s best that you replace your serpentine belt with the first signs of trouble. While you can drive for a while without the belt, it’s only a matter of time before your battery goes flat since there’s nothing charging it while you drive.

What Causes the Serpentine Belt to Fail?

Saab 9-5 Serpentine Belt Short Kit


Serpentine belts usually fail due to their age. However, there are instances where bad tensioner pulley alignment or too much tension on the belt will cause the belt to shred to pieces as you drive down the road. If your car ends up eating through serpentine belts every 10,000 miles or so, there’s a good chance that one of your tensioner pulleys or drive pulleys are the culprit.

How to Change the SAAB 9-5 Serpentine Belt

Now that we know what causes serpentine belt failure and how often you should replace it, let’s take a look at how to actually do it on a SAAB 9-5. While this isn’t as difficult as performing a CV axle replacement on this car, it still requires some mechanical prowess on your end.

Step 1 – Jack the Vehicle

Disconnect the car battery and apply the handbrake. Jack up the front passenger side and place a jack stand for safety. It is recommended for you to draw a diagram or take a photo of the belt route, it might come in handy if you are not a professional car mechanic.

Step 2 – Remove the Wheel & Cover

Remove the front passenger side wheel. The plastic wheel well cover inside is kept in place by 5 pieces of 8 mm Torx screws, take them out and the cover should slide off.

Step 3 – Take the Weight off of the Engine Mounts

Use your jack and place it under the engine. Lift it slightly to take the weight off of the engine mounts. You should place a piece of wood between the jack and the engine to prevent any damage to your motor.

Step 4 – Remove the Plastic Engine Cover

Using a flat-head screwdriver remove the plastic piece covering the top of your engine. Don’t forget to remove the MAF sensor boot from the passenger side of your engine, you can use a flat head screwdriver.

Step 5 – Remove the Engine Mounts

Remove the 18 mm nut on the passenger side upper engine mount. You should see four 15 mm screws holding down the metal yoke on the passenger side of the cylinder head. Remove them. After that, you can remove the yoke itself.

Your whole serpentine belt should be visible at this point. It is recommended for you to draw a diagram or take a picture of the belt route, so that you have a solid reference when you install a new one later on.

Step 6 – Release the Tension on the Belt

Saab 9-5 Serpentine Belt Tensioner


Release the tension using a ½ inch extension bar or a ½ inch breaker bar at the square slot on the rear side of the tensioner pulley housing. Pull the bar toward yourself, and it will let the tension off of the tensioner pulley, relieving tension on the belt.

  1. Saab 9-5 Serpentine Belt System

You can use a small tool inside the little hole on the side of the tensioner pulley housing just ahead of your cheater bar to lock the tensioner in the retracted position. When the tension is relieved, you can slide the belt out.

Step 7 – Check the System

Inspect the accessory system for wear. Make sure the tensioners and pulleys are in perfect condition. Before installing the new belt, check the alignment of the pulleys. Misalignment can cause some belt wear and damage.

Step 8 – Replace the Tensioner Pulley and Idler Pulleys

It’s recommended that you replace your tensioner pulley every time you install a new serpentine belt. To reach the tensioner pulley, you must take out the rear (upper) idler pulley, so you might as well replace it if it shows early signs of wear.

Use a size 13 mm open-ended wrench or a socket to take it off. Use a 6 mm Allen socket/hex bit and take out the tensioner pulley. Replace the new pulleys using the same tools and torque them down to 33 ft-lbs.

Step 9 – Install the New Belt

After thoroughly checking the entire drive mechanism and replacing worn components, install the new belt according to your drawing, illustration, photo, or belt routing diagram.

Carefully align the belt grooves with the pulley grooves and check that the belt is seated properly on each pulley. Run your fingers over the pulleys to ensure correct installation. If not installed properly, the belt may rise upwards on the pulley or skip the grooves; this will cause severe belt damage.

Step 10 – Unlock the Tensioner Pulley

Unlock the tensioner pulley by removing your small tool from its lock hole. Check the tension on the belt.

Step 11 – Put Back the Engine Mount

Install your engine mount yoke back in its place with four 15 mm screws and torque them to 39 ft-lbs. Reconnect the 18 mm engine mount nut and torque it to 78 ft-lbs

Step 12 – Reinstall the Covers and Check the Outcome

Reinstall the plastic engine cover and your wheel well cover. Reconnect your battery, start your engine and leave it running for a few minutes to ensure proper belt operation and even distribution of tension across the belt. If you hear any noise coming from the belt, you should stop immediately and inspect the belt. There’s a chance you’ve missed something along the way, meaning that you should probably redo the whole thing.

Step 13 – Put the Wheel Back On

If everything is done correctly, and you don’t hear any noises, put your wheel back on and lower your car. Your SAAB is now ready for a test drive.

Which Serpentine Belt to Use?

Instead of producing separate belts for each engine, spare parts manufacturers produce belts by the engine tolerance. When choosing the appropriate serpentine belt for the vehicle, it is necessary to know the number of grooves of the belt and the length of one groove. The K-coded system is generally used for the channel length. For example, your SAAB is using a 6k2612 belt. The number 6 gives the number of grooves in the belt, and 2612 is the nominal length of the belt.

Where to Get Quality Serpentine Belts for SAAB 9-5

If you are looking to replace your Saab 9-5’s serpentine belt hassle-free, you’re in the right place! Head over to our store, select your car from the drop-down menu, and you’ll be presented with a complete list of parts that match your vehicle. At that point, navigate your way to our selection of serpentine belts, and you’re good to go.

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5 thoughts on “Saab 9-5 Serpentine Belt DIY — A Complete Step By Step Guide

  1. I just did this to my 2000 9-3 and the square adjustment hole broke. I followed the suggestion on the forum to drill about 1/2″ deeper into it, and use whatever metal object that is long strong and narrow that can fit into that hole. In my case I used a 8mm socket plus adapters attached to breaker bar and that worked!

    Just want to throw it out there if other owners are running into similar issue.

  2. Thank you for a very informative way to replace the auxiliary belt saab 9-5,
    Mine snapped about 2 weeks ago and I now have the courage to investigate and to possibly carry out the repairs myself, Garages in England charges a fortune to do this kind of jobs, hence can’t afford a garage to do it for me, I have to (DIY) do it myself, I love the car.
    However my second issue is that when the belt broke my girlfriend driving at the time left the engine running as she couldn’t turn the steering to move car away from where it stuck before calling me to come and help luckily it occured on one end of our road, so i was able to drive the car home for about 400 meters but all power steering fluid were lost also, I guess the belt twisted on to a pipe and possibly broke it to release the fluid. (PLEASE HELP)!!!

    1. Hi Ollie, we carry all the parts you need to get that back together correctly as long as you have the 2.3l engine. In England the 2.0t and a diesel were also available, and we do not carry those parts. If you do have a 2.3, let me know what is broken and I can help you find everything you need. At minimum it sounds like you need a belt and a tensioner, but inspect the bearings in all of the pulleys using this blog post. If you find out what power steering pipe is broken, we can take it from there.

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