Aux belt and tensioner change

[thermal-penguin]

Okay guys so my aux belt has started to squeak a little over the last few days and it's doing my head in!

I am a fully qualified mechanic so have the mechanical knowledge to do the job, but being in the trade I have heard how much of a nightmare these things are with no one seeming to give any tips on how to do it easier.

I have had a search and could really find any tips or tricks ( may have missed it ) if there is a thread on this which I expect there is somewhere a link would be greatly appreciated or if someone has some tips then please fire away

 

[hipwell]

If your confident in taking off the bumper and slam panel headlight and arch liner then its a piece of cake mate. I'm useless and I managed it on my 182.

The actual belt and tensioner removal and replace is really easy.

There is a special tool for compressing the spring on the tensioner but as I didn't have one I used a jubilee clip which tbh I think makes the job even easier because it leaves you able to get the belt on and off with both hands.

 

[hipwell]

Changing goes along the lines of

Remove drivers wheel
Front bumper and under tray
Arch liner
Drivers headlight
Slam panel
Slacken off bottom alternator bolt
Remove top alt bolt and swing alt forward
Slacken off belt using jubilee clip or tool and remove belt
Remove jubilee clip and unbolt tensioner and idler pulley and replace.

Put belt on and put it all back together.

 

[Ek-greeny]

As above,but I didn't use a jubilee though as I didn't have 1. Instead I got a semi shallow 1/4 drive extension from snap on and a small 1/4 drive breaker bar put that into the tensioner and pushed it towards the bulkhead using a big breaker bar and got a mate to hook the belt on.
It's not a hard job at all, just time consuming with removing the parts as mentioned above. I replaced my waterpump at the same time which was a bit s**t as there's very little room to get the pulley off the pump

​im a techie myself aswell and dreaded it, but it was easy really

 

[thermal-penguin]

As above,but I didn't use a jubilee though as I didn't have 1. Instead I got a semi shallow 1/4 drive extension from snap on and a small 1/4 drive breaker bar put that into the tensioner and pushed it towards the bulkhead using a big breaker bar and got a mate to hook the belt on.
It's not a hard job at all, just time consuming with removing the parts as mentioned above. I replaced my waterpump at the same time which was a bit s**t as there's very little room to get the pulley off the pump

​im a techie myself aswell and dreaded it, but it was easy really

I was wondering if there was an extension or something that fitted the hole I have the extension I think your talking about so all good there will give it a go as soon as the kit turns up!

 

[Mr R.]

I have a Snap-on tool for the tensioner, its like a flat bar with a ratchet end which takes different bits.

 

[thermal-penguin]

I'm sure I have something like that will have a check tomorrow.

 

[mozzer_morrey]

im guessing its a bit tighter on a sport but i did my 1.4 16v yesterday (with zero mechnical knowledge) and the aux belt wasnt so bad, didnt need to remove the bumper just the grille. The timing belt however, with the stupid covers was a pain in the arse

 

[lemonnobby]

I have a Snap-on tool for the tensioner, its like a flat bar with a ratchet end which takes different bits.

That's what i have its mint.

 

[Mike@Rentech]

If you want a kit pop down and see me before end of month can beat your local dealers price no problems (;

 

[Ek-greeny]

That's what i have its mint.

I have also, but the bloody 1/4 drive but was to shallow to fit in

 

[Dan519]

I was wondering if there was an extension or something that fitted the hole I have the extension I think your talking about so all good there will give it a go as soon as the kit turns up!

My self made tool. no off the shelf tool comes close. I've made a few for people

 

[Dan519]

im guessing its a bit tighter on a sport but i did my 1.4 16v yesterday (with zero mechnical knowledge) and the aux belt wasnt so bad, didnt need to remove the bumper just the grille. The timing belt however, with the stupid covers was a pain in the arse

1.4/1.6 16v is harder than a 2 litre IMO, much less space, and less logical

 

[Ek-greeny]

That would have made my day dan! Instead of nearly cutting several fingers off my mates hand haha
How do you pros do it? Do you remove everything mentioned above or are there some tricks to it?
also, when you've got all of the above mentioned parts removed is the Cambelt much more work?

 

[Dan519]

I just remove everything. It takes moments and gives so much of a better line of sight to get everything perfect.
I have honestly done so many that I don't think I can be subjective about how hard it is for a n00b anymore. I find it stupidly easy, but it's routine. I still see them utterly messed up so it's knowing the right way from doing it regularly thats the key as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure there are tricks to it that I use, but it's just logic to me

 

[Fred@BTM]

My self made tool. no off the shelf tool comes close. I've made a few for people

snap on serp tool is amazing, makes it so easy!

 

[Dan519]

tried one, it's not as good

 

[Ek-greeny]

Same^ didn't work

 

[Fred@BTM]

Lol how can a tool that does the job be not as good as a tool that does the job?

 

[Dan519]

All the other special tools I've tried havn't fitted, or have been impossible to move once in the slot, or similar. That includes the snap on one I tried. They may have changed something but the one I've seen on the van recently is the same still

 

[Fred@BTM]

this is the one i use http://image.snapon.com/international/pdf/ya9350b.pdf

 

[Ek-greeny]

That's the same as mine and it would foul on the tensioner body whilst trying to crank the tensioner over

i used this

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...roup_ID=674768&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

 

[Fred@BTM]

^mine doesn't! bumper/slam panel off yeah?

 

[Mr R.]

Snap on tool works spot on. You guys must be all fingers and thumbs...

 

[maudy]

i used a 3/4" ratch bar long extension. If you look over the top of the alternator while you pull the aux belt (with bumper off) you can see the tensioner move in and out, as you pull you have enough room to slide the bar in from the top between the head and alternator into the little gap. Then once its in you can pull the tensioner and loosen the belt. Easy job from there. PS didnt take the healight out either

 

[Ek-greeny]

^mine doesn't! bumper/slam panel off yeah?

Yeah, all stripped off. It seemed the 1/4 part wasn't long/deep enough so the bar handle hit on the tensioner spring part. Maybe I should have tried it in a fewer positions but I'm 99% sure it was the tool and not me being a t**t
​

 

[hipwell]

I'm a cheapskate so thought 2 quid on a nice strong jubilee clip was more cost effective than anything snap on.

It did the job, might not be that safe though.

 

[thermal-penguin]

Thanks for all the replies guys! gonna be doing this tomorrow if the bits turn up! and fred that is the tool i was hoping people were talking about as we have one of those at my garage