Originally Posted by
pizzaguy
That is my understanding. THe tensioner has the spring that makes the belt secure and tight. THe cylinder is apparently there to dampen tensioner movement during hard shifting with the manual (that is the prevailing guess, anyway). No explanation that I have read exists why my 05 Limited six speed did not have a shock/damper but my 07 SE six speed has it. Same engine. Same transmission. Maybe it's the color of the car.
Interesting. I assumed the replacement tensioner wouldn't have the post for the cylinder to mount to but it does. So, I haven't decided if I should connect the cylinder it or just skip it...
When I was feeling around for the mounting bolt when trying to remove the tensioner, I unscrewed the wrong screw - it wasn't holding anything to the block so I don't know what it's for - maybe to plug a hole for something that goes on a MB? It's about 3-in long and the threads in the block are way in there. I had to torque the tensioner to move it out of the way while I removed the correct screw on the right (blue circle).
