What you get into when you have too much free time and a soft spot for a broken Kizashi

[OliverB]

As I'm always on the hunt for a cheap manual Kizashi, I spotted an ad for a 2013 kizashi with a broken CVT. I had no intention to purchase it until the seller mentioned he would scrap the car since he didn't receive a single offer in nearly 3 weeks. The seller must have been the most honest person I ever made a deal with and it was obvious that the lack of support from the ex dealer and how every garage around refused to even touch the car, despite having a common transmission, had taken it's toll on him. Being in his sixties and running an HVAC business, he plainly admitted his original plan was to fix it himself, but that he didn't have the time.

I asked how much he was expecting to get and he quickly told me to make an offer. My friend, who will be assisting me with this project, said I should have offered him 300$ (junkyard value), but the old man was simply too honest with me. It would have felt inappropriate to lowball someone as genuine as him so I offered 500$. He thought about it for 15 seconds and agreed. We both knew the tires alone were worth 500$, but I presume money isn't a priority for him. He seemed glad that the car could be back on the road instead of rotting away.

The end of the hood will need to be repaired since the car didn't have a deflector and rust has started to settle in, but other than that, the car is in pristine condition. Even the paint on the wheel isn't peeling away after 230,000 kms!

Fixing a transmission will be a first for me. I've ordered every parts that could have failed and the proper equipment to make this as easy as possible (that TJ-1 puller isn't cheap ). I obviously have no idea how this is gonna turn out, but I'm excited for the weekend!

Thanks old tech for the additional information!

[Ronzuki]

Excellent, and good luck with it! Keep us up to date w/ progress pics and anything else you have time to share.

[OliverB]

Let's just say I didn't pick the right partner to tackle this job. There was something morbid with having a kizashi follow another kizashi, on top of a tow truck, on it's way to the scrap yard.

[KIZAWDinKC]

I ended up replacing a pulley on a tensioner of my kiz this weekend. I set out originally to replace the entire tensioner body, even buying the OEM tensioner for $200 online. I figured if I couldn't get the old one off, then I could just take it to the shop and have them put on the tensioner I bought. Well that turned into a fiasco because you cannot get to the upper bolt of the tensioner unless you go from the top of the vehicle right next to the water pump pulley. Only a box wrench can be used and it's pretty damn hard to get a box wrench end on it. Trying to remove a 10 year old bolt with a box wrench in a tight space just isn't going to work. I was already starting to round the bolt, even used the penetrating 'wrench-it' oil. I realized the damn thing wasn't going to come off. The only way it can come off is to remove the water pump so you can get a 12mm socket wrench on it. That's probably what the shop would do and it would cost $$$$, assuming they'd even mess with it. So my plan B was to just remove the pulley from the new tensioner and put it onto the old tensioner after removing its pulley. I got that job done. I fired the kiz and it was nice and quiet again. But I was so bummed because I still prefer to have the entire tensioner replaced and was left with a $200 one that I got the pulley off of. I could have just bought a tensioner pulley from autozone for $20 instead. Trying to ship back the $200 tensioner I bought online for a refund would be too much of a hassle if it was even possible to do with the place I bought it from. At least it's running now, we'll see how long it lasts. My kiz is my daily beater to keep the miles off my truck, but after this fiasco I realized these vehicles really cannot be worked on. Mine has 100K miles, and the engine sounds like it could get another 100K easily, but to "keep it running", either it's going to cost $$$$ for a shop to replace a part on it assuming the part is even available, or most shops probably won't even touch these vehicles anyways. This will probably end up getting traded for $500 like above soon. I'd like to keep this vehicle going another couple of years, but even though I've got the tools and space, I don't care to be laying down on the garage floor dropping manifolds and removing water pumps just to get to a bolt turning my kiz into a "project car".

[old tech]

The trick on getting the upper bolt out is to remove the pulley and lower mounting bolt, then pivot tensioner housing counterclockwise , then while holding the upper bolt with an open end 12mm wrench pivot the tensioner clockwise and repeat. This should loosen upper bolt. You can remove crank pulley for more working room but it can be done without removing it. The top bolt was originally designed to be an allen bolt but shortly after the were also using the hex head bolt from the factory. I have never had to remove a water pump.

[KIZAWDinKC]

That is a brilliant idea! Well, I still have the new tensioner sitting on my garage shelf. The new pulley that was removed from the new tensioner and replaced onto the old tensioner is spinning nice and quiet.

I told myself if any ideas come to mind in the near future with how to remove that upper bolt, I might go ahead and get tear into it again and see if I can get the old tensioner off and replace it with the new one. I hated to just only replace the pulley when I know that tensioner should be replaced too as well, and being left with a new $200 tensioner body that I couldn't use. I think I'll try that! Why didn't I think of that! Yea, if that top bolt on mine was an allen bolt, then it could be reached from the wheel well. That water pump pulley sits almost right over that bolt pretty close. There is a service bulletin for the tensioner recall/replacement that shows this allen bolt as a replacement. Unfortunately, back then, I either missed the recall or ignored it. Adding the allen bolt was part of my original plan if I had been able to get the tensioner off.

[old tech]

I find way more problems with the tensioner portion than the pulley. When Im replacing the transmission I do this test. Rotate the engine counter clockwise 6 revolutions while watching the drive belt round the tensioner pulley. If tensioner is perfect, the belt will stay on the pulley . If tensioner is worn , you will see the belt start walking off or even jump a rib on the crank pulley while turning.