406oc.co.uk

Hi all,

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

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.

Thanks for the replies guys.

It is indeed a 2.1 TD.

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?

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,

the job should take about 30 mins to a hour
might be a idea to fit a new tensioner they about 40 pounds while you doing it.

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?

i dont think they are known for failing but if you can afford it its a good idea as i bet you dont know how long its been on for do you?

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?

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,

Cheers lozz,

What's the recommended replacement interval for the aux belt? Last time I know it was changed was at 145k, and the car's now at 208k.

Haynes seems to suggest that the belt should be "checked" every 36k, but I can't see any mention of it on the services around 181k.

How often do you guys change your aux belts?

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.

Since I'm at uni and have neither time nor tools at the moment I had to have it looked at at the local garage.

The idler pulley had seized causing the belt to come off and damage the tensioner, so had to have all three things replaced.

Never mind, all running well again now. Having the cambelt and glow plugs changed in a few weeks too.

Thank you for your advice all