Replacing the Serpentine Belt on a 2011 Suzuki Kizashi
The 2011 Suzuki Kizashi came with the J24B 2.4-liter inline-4, and the serpentine belt runs across five pulleys. It is straightforward but not entirely intuitive if you have never worked on this particular engine. The belt routing goes from the crank pulley up to the alternator, then down to the power steering pump, back up to the A/C compressor, across to the idler, and finally onto the tensioner which sits near the bottom of the assembly. The tensioner is the key to removing and installing the belt, and it uses a 14mm bolt for the pulley and a 14mm socket on the tensioner body itself. Here is the actual routing path I use when I need to verify it because these diagrams online are often rotated or blurry. The belt starts at the crankshaft pulley at the bottom front of the engine. From there it goes up and around the alternator pulley on the driver side. Then it routes down to the power steering pump pulley below the alternator. From the power steering pump it goes back up and around the A/C compressor pulley. Next it travels horizontally across to the upper idler pulley. Finally it drops down to the tensioner pulley and returns to the crank pulley. The tensioner is spring-loaded and you apply force clockwise to the tensioner body to relieve tension so you can slip the belt off and on. I used an OEM Mitsuboshi GB2115 for a long time and it lasted about 90,000 miles before I replaced it. After that I switched to a Gates 19415 which is the direct aftermarket equivalent and works fine at roughly the same interval. The belt has ribs on the inside face and the numbering should be visible on the smooth back side when you lay it flat.
One thing people consistently get wrong is the direction of the belt. If you route it backwards the ribs will not seat properly in the pulley grooves and you will hear a loud chirp within a day. The ribbed side faces inward toward the pulleys and the smooth flat side faces outward. It sounds obvious but I have seen it happen more times than I care to count, usually by someone working by headlamp in a driveway at night. The tensioner release procedure is where most mistakes happen. You need a 14mm socket on a ratchet with a decent extension, ideally a 3/8 drive with a six-inch extension and a swivel socket. You push the tensioner clockwise, which is toward the engine block, and hold it there while routing the belt. The travel is limited, maybe an inch or so of movement, so you need to be precise. I once stripped the tensioner pulley bolt because I was using a cheap socket that rounded off the corners. That took me two hours to dig out with an impact bit and a punch. Use a proper deep-well socket or a six-point wrench type if you can reach it. Another edge case that caught me off guard: the power steering pump pulley on some Kizashis from this era can be slightly worn on the inner surface where the belt rides. If the pulley grooves are polished smooth you will get slippage even with a brand new belt and correct tension. I resolved it by cleaning the pulley grooves with a fine abrasive pad and applying a thin coat of graphite lubricant to the pulley face, not the belt. That stopped the chirping immediately. If the grooves are deeply polished or cracked, the pulley needs replacement along with the belt.
Here are the torque values I stick to. The tensioner pulley bolt that holds the pulley to the bracket goes in at 25 Newton-meters or about 18 foot-pounds. Do not overtighten it. The tensioner mounting bolt that you apply the ratchet to is a different fastener and it runs at roughly 45 Newton-meters. Check both separately because they are different lengths and use different thread sizes. Putting the smaller torque spec on the wrong bolt is an easy mistake and it will cause the tensioner to loosen under vibration. The crank pulley bolt is a different story entirely. It is a large bolt at the bottom of the engine that holds the main crank damper. You need a 18mm socket and a breaker bar, and ideally someone to put the car in gear and brake while you loosen it, or use a pulley locking tool if you have one. Torque specification for that bolt is 130 Newton-meters plus an additional angle turn, typically 90 degrees. It is a torque-to-yield style application so if the bolt is stretched or shows any cracks you replace it. I have seen people reuse old crank bolts and then deal with vibration at highway speed that they could not figure out for weeks. If you are dealing with a belt that has glazed shards or flaking rubber inside the ribs, do not just swap the belt and move on. That contamination gets into the pulley grooves and ruins new belts quickly. I clean the pulley surfaces with brake cleaner and a brass wire brush, then inspect each pulley for bearing play by spinning it by hand. Any pulley that makes a grinding noise or has lateral wobble needs to be replaced before you put the new belt on. The A/C compressor clutch bearing is the most common failure point on this engine and it will destroy a new belt in under five thousand miles if you ignore it.
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There is a real limitation to this whole process that the manuals do not emphasize enough. The space between the alternator and the power steering pump is tight. Your hands and tools have very little room to maneuver, especially when routing the belt on the lower section near the tensioner. I recommend using a set of long-nosed belt routing pliers or a magnetic pickup tool to grab the belt end and guide it into place. Fingers are too big for that gap and you will waste time fighting with the belt ends. After installation, start the engine and let it idle for thirty seconds with the belt exposed so you can watch it track on all pulleys. Look for any moment where the belt lifts out of a groove or sits unevenly. If it tracks fine at idle, rev the engine gently a few times and watch again. A belt that looks good at idle but jumps at higher RPM usually means the tensioner spring is weak or the tensioner arm is binding. Replace the tensioner assembly in that case rather than pushing the problem down the road. For reference, the complete belt routing diagram for the 2011 Suzuki Kizashi Serpentine Belt Diagram can be found in the factory service manual under the engine mechanical section, or you can pull a clear image from a subscription service like ALLDATA or Mitchell1. Free images online are often low resolution and rotated incorrectly, which is worse than useless when you are trying to match the routing in real time. If you want a free printable version, take a photo of your own engine bay with the old belt still on before you remove it. That photo will be accurate to your specific vehicle since some later model years had minor routing variations.
The whole job, assuming you have the right tools and a ten millimeter and a fourteen millimeter socket set plus an extension and a ratchet, takes about forty-five minutes for a first attempt. Once you have done it twice it drops to under twenty minutes. The biggest time sink is always the crank pulley bolt removal if you ever need to access anything behind the belt, and even then it is manageable with the right approach.
