Aux belt decided to give up today but managed to get the car home without power steering, it's a heavy beast! The remains of the belt are still around the alternator.
I'm not experienced enough with cars to change it myself, so can anyone offer any advice on having them replaced? Is there anything that could have caused the belt to fail, or is it just the belt itself wearing out? Should I have anything else checked at the same time?
Cheers
2002 V6 SE Coupé (210bhp) - (Aegean Blue)
2002 D9 2.2 HDi Exec Estate - Samarkand Blue PM me for PP2000 diagnostics around Surrey
Hi mate,
check all the pulleys can be turned by hand,
especialy the aircon/compressor pulley that shouid be freewheeling,
on my old 406 this locked up solid and snapped the Aux belt and took the crankshaft pulley with it,
The aux belt is fairly easy to change, but check everything is free wheeling first before fitting a new one or you couid just be throwning money away,
if its a 2.1 you lucky it didnt take the cam belt with it as they normaly do
i hope you removed the remains of the belt before driving
are you near me? if so il pop round and give you a hand if you like.
I was literally doing 2mph at the time and was about 50 metres from home. I checked the remains of the belt weren't around the drive pulley as best I could, but I couldn't remove them from the alternator and PAS pump. Yeah I realise I'm lucky that it didn't take the cambelt with it, I guess that's due to the very low engine speed.
I'm in Cambridge so not that close I'm afraid, that's very kind of you to offer though.
I'm not confident in changing the belt on my own, but getting the car to a mechanic is going to be hard. My current plan is to give a couple of mobile mechanics a ring and see what they say in pricing terms. What sort of cost should I be expecting?
2002 V6 SE Coupé (210bhp) - (Aegean Blue)
2002 D9 2.2 HDi Exec Estate - Samarkand Blue PM me for PP2000 diagnostics around Surrey
Daft Question here :
But are you a Member of the A~A or R~A~C etc.
if you are,
throw a spare aux belt in the boot, and ring em say youve broke down.
they shouid be kind enough to put it on for you,
I've got breakdown cover through my insurance company so that's definitely worth a try -- thanks for the suggestion, I didn't think of that. If I do this, having them replace the tensioner is probably impossible I guess.
OK that's not as long as I was thinking. Are the tensioners a known failure point then? And what would happen if it failed?
2002 V6 SE Coupé (210bhp) - (Aegean Blue)
2002 D9 2.2 HDi Exec Estate - Samarkand Blue PM me for PP2000 diagnostics around Surrey
You are absolutely correct, I've no idea how the tensioner has been on for.
My thoughts are that whilst I can perhaps get the breakdown cover to replace the belt, they won't replace the tensioner? So I'm just trying to judge how vital (or not) it is that the tensioner gets changed.
Has anyone else ever had a belt changed by breakdown services?
2002 V6 SE Coupé (210bhp) - (Aegean Blue)
2002 D9 2.2 HDi Exec Estate - Samarkand Blue PM me for PP2000 diagnostics around Surrey
Just Ring them mate,
and say your car as broke down,
a passer by had alook over the engine and confirms the aux belt as broke
luckily ihave a spare in the boot but im unable to fit it,
they can only say no, but if they tell you no over the phone itl save waiting
they replaced the aux belt on My mother in laws Car to save towing her home,
Fitting an aux belt takes about ten minutes, taking the front end ancillaries (PS pump & alternator) off to remove the casting to let you change the tensioner takes about an hour.
As long as the tensioner pulley is spinning freely with no noise/pickup points just fit the belt.
