Review on Gates 38201 Belt Tensioner Assembly by Walter Devarakonda

This part eliminates the annoying squeak/squeak on my 2002 BMW 330xi. A year later, however, the creaking returned. My rating is so low because the pulley on this part interferes with the bottom mounting bolt. During installation I had to remove the alternator, which is completely unnecessary with a normal tensioner. The OEM idler gives you enough room to slip your hand under the pulley to tighten the bottom mounting bolt, but not with this one. Contributing to the chunky nature of this product unlike the OEM tensioner is a separate 16mm nut on the top anchor to counteract the spring. Instead, you need to attach the wrench head to the bolt in the center of the pulley. Trust me, these little details are really frustrating and can turn a half-hour job into a two-hour job just because the job gets so uncomfortable. I ended up ordering a tensioner + pulley, http://www.amazon.com/gp. /product/B010ODL3QW and was able to remove the pulley from this tensioner and reinstall it on my original OEM tensioner which I luckily kept. I removed the pulley from product B010ODL3QW because it did not fit my 2002 BMW 330xi; Call and check the installation again. OEM Style Tensioner Installation Guide: I hope this guide will save someone some time. An OEM style tensioner with a separate 16mm nut makes installation relatively easy. Install the top screw and hand tighten. Reach under the pulley to align the bottom bolt and tighten (feel tight) the bolt. Once the bottom bolt is tight enough, tighten the top bolt and then attach a 16mm wrench to the form nut and slide the pulley out of the way so you can tighten the bottom bolt. I used a socket wrench with an extension to tighten the bottom bolt.