Hello all, just put in a new timing belt tensioner on my '00OBW 2.5L sohc. Well I torqued the gadget's mounting bolt onto the bracket using the OE manual spec of I think it was about 29 ft*lbs(f).

 

Anywho, I can slide it in and out on it's mounting bolt a little; I don't know how much but I'd say maybe 1/32" or so. Is this normal? I didn't see anything in the manual about it. I didn't check the original tensioner's lateral freeplay. Thanks!

I think I'll pull it out today and make sure the o-ring is actually on the tensioner mounting bolt and maybe I'll put the old one back on there temporarily to compare. It seems to me that with as much axial freeplay on that bolt if the thing slides back and forth for whatever reason it's going to make noise.

Was there a spacer behind it?

The only spacer is the o-ring which is really just there to help keep the assembly from coming apart. I checked the original tensioner and it has about the same amount of freeplay so I think I'm good.

 

Basically the tensioner has kind of a sleeve bearing in it (left in pic below) which is a bit longer than the tensioner housing, which when combined with the washers on each end, results in a bit of freeplay where the tensioner can slide in and out on the mounting bolt.