OK, so I've already searched and read through tons of posts on "The Plastic Burning Smell" and "Replacing & Tightening Our Belts". I haven't seen anyone else with this particular issue but I popped the hood and could smell the burnt smell near the belts and with the car off it goes away shortly thereafter. I installed Gates Blue Racing Belts a couple months ago and from searching other posts learned that they often have to be re-tightened. So I went ahead and gave myself a nice oil change while the lower panel was off and then went to tightened the belts (they did feel like they had more than 3mm of give but I don't have a belt tensioner). So I start to tighten the adjuster pulley with the downward facing 12mm bolt on the drivers side. I started tightening it at quarter turn intervals and the belt didn't seem to get any tighter. The bolt actually ended up lowering a bit from it original position and moving slightly back towards the engine out of the little groove that it sits in within the bracket (yes, I know righty tightly, lefty loosey). Through all of this the belts never felt tighter.

I'm sure I'm just missing some simple step (or at least I hope I am) and figured out of the vast knowledge from this site someone should know what I'm doing wrong (or what I broke)

Thoughts?

 

ur car MT? it could be the clutch?

 

Yes, it's the 6spd. Had a new clutch put in with new transmission about a year ago. I am pretty hard on it but I thought it might last longer than that. Do you by any chance know an easy way to inspect that?

 

You need to break loose the 14mm nut on the pulley itself first before adjusting tension on the belt. The 14mm nut is a lock nut that keeps the pulley from moving up and down. Without loosening it, you risk stripping the adjustment bolt (ie the one you're trying to turn). If you're not hearing any belt squeal, then your belts are tight enough.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. I'm also going to see if Autozone has a belt tensioner for rental just to be safe.