Last week I was driving home from a friends and I heard a funny sound from under the hood and saw something odd in my rear view mirror. I stopped, backed up and found my serpentine belt laying out on the road. I have bought a new belt but I was told by a guy that my problem may be more then just a belt. Apparently the belt tensioners are known to go in these cars.
Does anyone know a way to check them without removing them from the vehicle.

 

No, I guess I really don't. I have lost a couple of them, it seems to me the Saturn one gave out as have at least one on my Mitsubishi and a 4 cylinder Fiero. They take a fair amount of abuse if you think about it. The generally are positioned in some place that is hard to get to so even if they fail catastrophically it is hard to determine if they are any darned good. Although the Mitsubishi one sort of spread parts all over the road so it was a bit easier.

 

i would replace to be safe. get one from gm dealer, as I remember reading somewhere that some of the aftermarket ones are actually slightly off in diameter

 

I agree with derf on both points there. OEM and new belt.

 

Me too -- what they said. New tensioner from OEM supply ...

 

This is a part that I have never bought from a dealer about, neither this or the belt. I generally buy parts from a CarQuest store and have yet to have a problem with anything that I have purchased.
The only Saturn parts that I have purchased from a dealer were the engine temperature sensors (on my 94 there are two, one to turn on the fan and the other to tell the computer what the engine temperature is) and parts for the Sun Roof.

 

Ok thanks everyone. I will remove it and replace it. A new one up here is around $125.

 

$125.00?
WOW
I don't remember what I paid for the belt tensioner on mine when it went out. I do think if I paid $125.00 for it I would remember. And I would guess it was some time around the year 2000 or so but it makes no difference, looking up the part on ROCK auto which I have used a couple of times and been totally satisfied with the resulting part I find the price ranges from about $35.00 to $95.00 depending on the brand and whether it is on sale.
I do not know how Rock auto works but I think they have a network where they are tracking parts all through the country in that I bought a pair of gas struts which were hard to find and one came from one state and the other came from another state and it was billed to RockAuto in a 3rd state but ------
Here is the result (looking for a 94 because that is the car I have)

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php

 

I am wondering if after duty though it would still be the same price

 

Golly - Kearney is a little far north to make a road trip to save the import duty. I wish ya luck with this project ...