Went about taking apart the accessories area of the engine for maintenance and one of the shocks (lower one) just came apart on me. I was loosening it's upper screw and felt a pop as it unloaded and came apart. The other one seemed to be leaking a little oil. Just placed another order for replacements. This engine has 92k summer miles on it for reference.

Took a look at the idler pulleys as well and decided to just order another set of OEMs even though I was just going to make my own originally. The time saved is worth it compared to the money I would save by designing my own, plus the extra peace of mind knowing that they are designed to work another 100k miles is a bonus. I have heard some comments on the crappy plastic cracking, but looking at mine the bearings were the first things to start looking/sounding shady. Idlers are a fairly common thing to replace on engines anyhow and I'm counting on only having to do this once.

I was counting on replacing the belts as well in any case but it's always good to see that a replacement was warranted.

So far just doing a run-of-the-mill accessories tuneup has been fairly pricey!

fan, fan clutch, 2 x tensioners, 2 x idlers, 2x belts