Changing the serpentine belt on your Hyundai is an important part of maintaining the engine. If the belts become damaged or worn, it can fail or break while you are driving the car. Since the belt turns the alternator, water pump and power steering in your car, failure of the belt can cause the engine to overheat, be hard to steer and allow the battery to discharge very rapidly. Inspect the belt often. Every time you change the oil you should check it.
Locate the tensioner pulley on the front of your engine. The tensioner looks like the other pulleys but is mounted on a spring loaded arm.
Place a socket and ratchet on the bolt in the center of the tensioner pulley and move the ratchet counterclockwise to relieve the tension on the belt. Slide the old belt off the pulleys and slowly let the tension back on the tensioner.
Position a new belt on the pulleys making sure that you follow the same path with the new belt that the old one followed. If the serpentine belt gets reversed on the pulleys, the accessories will spin the wrong direction and can be damaged.
Move the ratchet on the belt tensioner counterclockwise again and slide the belt onto the tensioner. Slowly move the ratchet clockwise to release the tensioner and tighten the belt.
Start the engine and watch the belt. Visually verify that the belt is running true across all the pulleys.
