How critical is the belt tension anyway....?
Ok, I accept that too tight could cause extra stress on the tensioner roller etc, and too loose may cause accelerated belt wear or even cause the belts to jump teeth, but surely there must be a pretty wide tolerance between these two extremes.
I can't see that belt tension would affect valve timing or engine performance to any significant extent.
So why all the complicated methods ?
Is it perhaps just that the use of a factory-specified gizmo leads to a more reliably consistent result, eliminating any variations that may otherwise occur between different mechanics when performing an adjustment that relies on a bit of interpretation or "feel" ?
Personally (and I've only done mine twice, so I'm no expert) I use the allen key method, but I also give the belts a twist, and generally tug them around until I've got a good feel for the tension from a number of different perspectives.
I also recheck them after a couple of hundred miles.
And .......why allen keys anyway ? Surely a short piece of round (rather than hexagonal) bar would be a more suitable gauge.....??
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