Xantia 1.9TD Aux belt bodge

Unread post by **RichardW** » 21 May 2007, 20:41

I've been having trouble with the aux belt spring tensioner (early type) for some time. It's been getting worse lately, banging away and slipping the first sign of heavy load if it's warm, wet, or cold - so most of the time really! Looking at the tensioner I could see that the hole in the moving part was actually clear of the fixed part - meaning the tensioner was about 1/2" further back than it should have been. Tighten it up too much and the tensioner was banging on the timing belt cover - not enough and the belt slipped under load (sorry not very clear this one, couldn't get the camera to focus on the right bit!).

So, as I don't intend keeping this one long term, I thought if I could pull the tensioner back and stick a pin in the hole, then that would stop it banging and allow me tighten it up to stop it slipping. And so it does, bodge in place:

I've cable tied the rod to the HP pump mount to stop it jumping around, but it seems firm. See how it goes this week (bucket of tools in the back of the car just in case

). It did take a substantial lever (90cm iron bar!) leaning against the engine mount to get enough force to push the tensioner back. Interestingly, initially I didn't have the belt tight enough and it was still making the banging noise, which seemed to be from the belt jumping on the HP pump. So maybe it wasn't banging on the timing belt cover, but it was just the belt jumping that was making all the noise, and I could have just tightened it up some more

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 21 May 2007, 20:52

Good thinking Richard,

I do enjoy seeing lateral thinking in action to get over a problem

I wonder if you have the wrong belt fitted. The one for the later tensioner is just a little longer than the one for the early tensioner and in taking up this extra length you'd certainly have the end of the tensioner making contact due to it being at the extreme end of its range.

It is dead easy to mix up the two belts and even the stealers are not too sure which is which

howiedean · Unread post by **howiedean** » 21 May 2007, 22:25

Nice one, have you seen how much it costs for the tensioners? I nearly choked at the prices from GSF never mind the dealer.

Regards

Unread post by **RichardW** » 22 May 2007, 07:59

"Nice one, have you seen how much it costs for the tensioners?"

Why do you think it's got 20p's worth of threaded bar stuck in it....

And that's before you consider the 1/2 day's work to fit the new one .

The belt is the right one (1710) - the spring (or something else) in the tensioner is just knackered so it doesn't sit in the right place. I had to lever it forwards, ie in the direction the spring should push, to get the pin in. 30 miles to work this morning without trouble and it is much quieter!