fan belt tensioner needs replacing

[khalil]

ok i been getting some strange noise from the engine (2.0tdi sport) when i rev it the noise goes away, i opened the bonnet and its coming from the belts some where, so i had my mechanic who my family been using for years, and he looked at it and he said that its the fan belt tensioner, phoned audi for that part and they said £60, so i got it of GFS for £35,going to get it fitted tomorrow,funny thing is when i drove back from GFS the noise is gone, took it back to the mechanic, he had a look and said strange, but he noticed atlot of vibration from that tensioner, had anyone else had this problem, oh and the milage is 54k on my car
cheers

 

[davemk]

I had something similar on my Mk4 Golf. It was a kind of a knocking sound and a fan belt screech all rolled into one!! Mine turned out to be a cam belt pulley or tensioner iirc so be careful.

 

[khalil]

I had something similar on my Mk4 Golf. It was a kind of a knocking sound and a fan belt screech all rolled into one!! Mine turned out to be a cam belt pulley or tensioner iirc so be careful.

where did you get yours fixed?? dealers?

 

[S3 Big Andy]

Happened to my S3 got it done on warranty!

 

[davemk]

Yes, took them about 7 weeks to find out what it was . They changed the waterpump, air con compressor, various pulleys / tensioners and finally settled on the cam belt pulley.

 

[khalil]

mine well almost 99% that it is the fan belt tensioner, because when you open the bonnet you can see where the noise is coming from,is it a major thing to change?, that tensioner whobbles all over the place when the engine is running lol. its really wierd because when you even rev the engine a little the noise goes away

 

[Teejay]

didn't know modern cars still had fan belts

 

[golf]

I've got the same problem, a little WD40 on the inside of the belt seems to cure it!

 

[PW-Motorsport]

If the free hub/wheel on the alternator has failed it will give similar symptoms.

On the alternator there is a pulley that contains a free hub/wheel these lock up.
With this failure this causes the V belt tension to fluctuate making you think the V belt tensioner is weak. Some instances the power steering pump can be noisy.

The pulley is around £50 and you need a special tool to remove it. Very common problem often miss diagnosed.

 

[khalil]

If the free hub/wheel on the alternator has failed it will give similar symptoms.

On the alternator there is a pulley that contains a free hub/wheel these lock up.
With this failure this causes the V belt tension to fluctuate making you think the V belt tensioner is weak. Some instances the power steering pump can be noisy.

The pulley is around £50 and you need a special tool to remove it. Very common problem often miss diagnosed.

you are spot on mate, yesterday a i had the fan belt replaced, that seem to sort out the wobble of the tensioner, but in the end we figured it out it WAS the PULLY on the alternator, it was locked up, so had that replaced, so if your fan belt seems to be wobbling all over the place my advise is to get the PULLY checked,

 

[kaz219]

I've got the same problem, a little WD40 on the inside of the belt seems to cure it!

Same here. On my Golf, it use to screech and a bit of WD40 use to get rid of it!!