Aux belt - any DIY pointers?

[MrTurner]

I'm certain my aux belt needs to be changed.  It doesn't look in the best of shape, and I'm hearing a few noises that seem belt related.  I've also had the occasional lack of PAS that TED has described in a recent post.

I've looked in the Haynes manual, and that's really not too helpful.  There are so many variations (V-belts, rigged belts, self tensioning and not..), that I'm not sure how to do it.  Questions I have are:

1) How do you see if the aux belt is self tensioning?
2) Is there a DIY guide anywhere on changing on on a 16v with no A/C?
3) Any pointers?

[Rmachines]

Which belt are we talking about here,  you mean the smaller V belt to run the Power steering or the ribbed Alternator belt?   the V belt is very easy.  you slacken two 13mm bolts and one 16mm bolt on the PS pump bracket then there is a cog and teath which pull the pump bracket to adjust it.   you undo the 13mm centre bolt and turn the 21mm < I THINK  to pull it tigher.    Just get down there and look you will see what i mean.

the other bigger belt is auto and you just stick a spanner on the tenssioner bolt and pull it back on the sping to remove the belt. 

[MrTurner]

I'm not sure tbh, but from what you're saying, sounds like it's the v-belt.  There are only two belts, the first (which looks in a lot better nick) is thicker and runs round more than one pulley, my guess is that's the cambelt?

The belt I want to change is the smaller belt, only around 2 pulleys.  If that's the v-belt I'll have a go.  How do you know how much is the right amount of tension?

This wouldn't cause a misfire would it..  I seem to have developed one of them since my gearbox change 

[Rmachines]

the cam belt is under the plastic cover.  dont mess with that unless you know exactly what your doing .. but yea the V belts are a bit of a pain on golfs.  Both very easy to change.  its the same as the 1.8, 8v and diesels ... all the same layout.    the bigger belt is for the water pump and alternator etc..   

[MrTurner]

I take it all the belts are on the same end of the engine..  Neither of the 2 I can see are behind a plastic cover 

I guess I'll have to find myself a cover now then too 

[Rmachines]

No the cam belt is behind a cover.  the other two are not.   the cam belt has teeth thats the one you do NOT want to snap.. or touch at all.   If you are going to change one of the other two you may as well do both while you are there.  only £7 ish each if that.   

[VW BUSH]

Tightened mine today due to PS loss in rain last week!
Took 15 mins

[MrTurner]

Right - the cambelt is the one I don't want to touch, I know which one that is.  But I'm sure I've only got one other belt, for the PAS?  Is there a pic anywhere of the 3rd belt, or where it is in case I've missed it?

I'll be changing the PAS one tonight, while attempting to find the cause of my misfire.

[bored_Welsh_lad]

mate you can change it yourself, its a piece of piss...

im going to find you a guide for it right now....

and the tools you need are BASIC!!!!

On the drivers side of the car is where you'll be spending all of your time.

Remove the splashguard, its held in place to the body by two small friction clips, and then a 3rd "clip" that goes into the sub frame.  Just yank it down, it should come out easy.




First, you must loosen the adjuster that holds the pump to the bracket.  Just loosen these bolts, you don't have to remove them.  You may have to "apply some force" to the P/S pump body itself to get the bracket to become loose.  Three of the adjuster bolts are circled, refer to the illustrations below.  These are bolts shown below,



the one on the rear labelled up as no. 19 in this diagram is the bolt you use to tension up the belt, you will see that it has teeth on it...the bolt is made up of a bigger head and a smaller head if i remember rightly, you put enough force on this to take up the tension on the belt and then tighten up bolt no. 12 to keep the belt rigid, you then go down to the smaller size on no.19 and tighten this up to make sure the ps pump stays in place... i know it sounds hard to understand but once your under there it really is easy...



i wish i had a pic to show you the toothed bolt to make it easier...

anyways i hope this helps

[bored_Welsh_lad]

Thats how you replace the powersteering belt, then the thicker belt you see has a tensioner on it which you access from the top of the engine bay, whack a 13mm spanner on it and pull and it will remove the tension on the belt, once you have the powersteering belt off the aux belt will come off no probs