VW/Audi 98-04 Tensioner diagnosis replacement.

[Nick]

My car is a 1998 VW golf mk4, one of the early ones with the decent gear box, as some of you may notice a odd set of injectors, those are LPG/CNG injectors for my LPG conversion. if there is any interest I’ll go it detail about that some other time. I grabbed a load of picture but most of them are too crap to use, so I’ll try to add them later if I can.

[URL=http://imgbox.com/adgEKaQx][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/adgEKaQx.jpg[/IMG][/URL] you can zoom in and get a much better look by clicking on these thumb nails.

Now before I got started I run the front of the car onto ramps. I recommend this because if somehow you do manage to dislodge the belt, of the lower pulleys (ive done it it’s really not fun at all). It’s really difficult to re align it properly without getting under the car. you should avoid needing to do this with the way I do it, but It’s better to be ready just in case.

I’m going to start with this video youtube.com/watch?v=IoZTetbYZEo.

The same tensioners are used on many VW/Audi group gas/petrol 1.6 SOHC V8’s , 1.8T’s and 2 litre engines. so you might see these on other seat and Skoda’s from 1998 too 2004. another reason I point to this vide is because it has the belt path diagram. the only variation to this is that on some engines the air condition pump is missing and the belt will go straight from the alternator to the power steering pump. Also the cars without AC don’t need the belt which is ribbed on both sides of it unlike the one with AC. you get this exact engine in many 1.6L Audi A3’s, Skoda or Seat’s between 98-04 with a slightly different engine cover.

Now you need to get the lower cover off on my engine. In the previous picture you see the holes in the cover, these are 10mm nuts on there that hold the cover on.

In this picture below you see the plastic covers which would be there if you don’t lose them ( actually a rookie mechanic at my local garage lost them )
[URL=http://imgbox.com/adp9OTbE][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/adp9OTbE.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
they do really pop out so as well as using a flat headed scredriver I’s put my hand or finger on top and use the screwdriver as a lever, this way they won’t go flying.

This picture below is the other nut that hold’s the lower cover on, this is really easy to lose if your not careful. I’ve had to look for this under the car for it numerous times.
[URL=http://imgbox.com/adg6pQoI][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/adg6pQoI.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

My symptoms where very different and much harder to diagnose. my belt is still tight. if fact it baffled me for a while now.

I would of liked to have done a full length video but I’m relying on my phone’s camera here.
but for showing and and hearing the fault there is no better way.

I was using a 17mm wrench here, I’ll become apparent later why I used a wrench rather than 17mm socket. the main thing to Note when I slacken the Tension on the belt the squeaking stops. Tighten it, it gets noisier, as an after thought That really does sound like a crappy bearing. But it can be hard to tell which pulley might be as noise travels though metals so it can be real hard to locate the exact cause of that noise.

When the engine has warmed up the noise is normally gone, but I literately had to drive through a half ft deep lake after some very heavy rain and this week and the noise now persists even when the engine is warm. What I didn’t show on the video is that my car idles around 800rpm, when I increase the revs above 1300 rpm the noise all but disappears.

I was at first guessing it the alternator pulley, Now what I did next, this is quite possibly well beyond health and safety law/regulations, I started the car and grabbed a screw driver I put the screw driver on a solid bit of the alternator and put my ear on the handle. This was fantastic as I could head the bearing noise from the alternator, it was very smooth, So I could rule that out.

Next up the the tensioner, I put the screwdriver on a the solid bit just below where I used my wrench to slacken it earlier. I could hear metal grinding it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t smooth it sounded dry to my untrained ear. But it definitely seemed like a likely cause.

I’m not sure how on earth you test the power steering or AC pulleys, unless you have a really long extension bar.

So I went and grabbed this, from my local parts store.
[URL=http://imgbox.com/aciCeE4t][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/aciCeE4t.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

now to removing the tensioner.

now unlike the A1 auto guy, Firstly I highly recommend you go find a 4 or 5mm nail, old drill bit, Allen/hex key that you don’t want to keep( it’s going to be pretty hard to remove it one you get the old tentioner out of the car, something that’s strong enough to hold the tension on the tensioner. In my case I used this

[URL=http://imgbox.com/ackxUpbp][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/ackxUpbp.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Now with implement in hand, you want to use a Wrench this time to release the tension on the and you want to go until the lug on the moving side of the tension marries up to the luck on the side that’s attached to the engine and alternator.

now when you have it lined up you can put it through the hole to the side of your wrench all the way through to the hole in the other lug attached to the engine/alternator. Like this

[URL=http://imgbox.com/adqAJq7s][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/adqAJq7s.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

now you have your tension released and you don’t have to move the belt at all. Just leave it where it is.

Now you can start on the 3 13mm bolts holding the tensioner in place. if your car is like mine and has this metal bit ( which holds the lower engine cover on) as pointed to by the arrow.

[URL=http://imgbox.com/acil8hAr][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/acil8hAr.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

those 13mm bolts are in a pretty awquard position with that metal bracket in place so I’d losen those with the tiny bit of movemnt you can get with a 13mm wrench then undo them the rest of the way by hand, Ignore the 3rd 13 mm bolt for now. because when you undo the nut on the end of the Alternator as ponted out by the arrow.

[URL=http://imgbox.com/abi6xCed][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/abi6xCed.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

you can manoeuvre that black painted bit of metal out the way and you have real easy access to tensioner bolt number 3.

just undo that however you like and get the old tentioner out of there.

I know Eric likes to examine the new/ old parts before fitting.

The old one
[URL=http://imgbox.com/abkCvPxT][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/abkCvPxT.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
The new one
[URL=http://imgbox.com/acon5yQB][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/acon5yQB.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

What really strikes me is that although I thought I was buying a cheep aftermarket part ( and it was literally the cheapest I could find at Eurocarparts). It looks like I struck the jackpot. It is identical and made by the same people who made the part for VW. Only difference is it’s it missing the VW stamp and part number on the black plastic ring ( oh and it was less than half the price compaired to the VW dealer). B) Looks like a different brand on the box but when did that ever matter.

Anyway the fitting is pretty much the reverse of the removal, I did take some more pictures but they where crap, and Relatively unimportant. What is useful is that the rather useless in this situation Haynes manual does state the Torque for the tensioner bolts at 25Nm or 18lbf ft which is not mega tight. now the only thing left to so once you have it all back in place is remove the safety pin holding the tensioner back.

[URL=http://imgbox.com/acqsmN5t][IMG]http://t.imgbox.com/acqsmN5t.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Check your belt is still in place, if you did it my way it wouldn’t of moved at all. Ease the tensioner against toward you enough to pull the safety pin out then ease slowley it back on to the belt.

I’d keep this tensioner safety pin, it’ Ideal to release the tensioner in future so if you change/check the belt you can do it without looking for something else to hold it ( like that nail I used) , and not have someone else hold the tensioner back while you work under the car.

Check the belt is tight and you should be good to start the car and see if it’s any good.

In my case.

I donno what that hiss is on the video, but my ears say it’s fixed and you can hear the squeak is gone.

Now all you need to do is put the engine cover back on and it’s job done in my case.

and when I cold started it this morning, perfect, no unwanted noise. B)

Also worth remembering at this time it’s sure as hell worth checking your belt for wear and tear or cracking while your at it.

If you don’t find a pulley with dodgy bearings, and your belt it tight, it not too hard to check the pulley alignment if you can spin the pulley by hand or look for wobble when the engine is running. with the belt off you can use a flat ruler(preferably a thin metal one) see if the grooves in the pulley line up to the next one and soo on. it’s not as good as laser tools but most of use don’t want to go there.

Anyway there you go. Now I know why Eric makes Videos rather than make posts like this.

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