BEW serpentine belt replacement - how to

I was at the VW dealer yesterday with a 2004 BEW Golf for something else, and they recommended a new serpentine belt for $201 (Canadian), including an hour labour. This makes no sense to me. Am I missing something? It looks like a $30 belt and maybe 20 minutes if I do it myself.

andrewfoster said:

I was at the VW dealer yesterday with a 2004 BEW Golf for something else, and they recommended a new serpentine belt for $201 (Canadian), including an hour labour. This makes no sense to me. Am I missing something? It looks like a $30 belt and maybe 20 minutes if I do it myself.

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They were looking to make some bank! You're right as a good OE belt is about $25 to $30 and takes only 20 minutes to install. Maybe 30 minutes if it's your first time

It's done - Can$34.42 including tax for the Continental belt, and a rather fiddly half hour to do it, despite small hands. The biggest hazard is the lockout pin. I thought it was a strong enough piece of drill rod, but saw it bending and put in another before anything happened - could have been nasty!

KSF, thanks for this great info and the pix! I was all set to approach this belt change from the bottom as I did in my old 2000 Jetta with the ALH engine, but searched and found this thread so on my 2005 with BEW it was all done from the top.

I used a 3-foot blunt pole to push the belt past the bottom (engine) pulley and slip it on. Also a slight turning by hand of the alternator pulley was needed to get the belt to finally seat.

Also, I didn't have a 16mm wrench but an adjustable wrench worked just fine to move the tensioner, and a drill bit (point goes in the hole) was used to keep it in place.

What is the part number for the belt? D470K6 ?

Just a fun addendum to this thread.

I had the tensioner pulley bearing go out (sweet intermittent squeal, intermittent drag on engine rpm and power) and wanted to try to get it out without going up from the bottom.

It can be done from the top!

This procedure, followed by removing the three mounting bolts. Making sure you have a good pin that secures the pulley on the way out of the car. It is *tight* getting it out, but a little rotation and moving the plastic over just slightly gets it done.

E

Bumping this thread.

Finally joined the club and bought a 05 A4 Jetta Wagon TDI - when I was test driving it I noticed some squeel coming from the power steering pulley, and a slight squeel coming the AC pulley when it was cranked all the way on, as well as a low idle. Got the price lowered because of it, and bought serpentine belt from idparts the same day.

Used this thread, took me 10 mins to change, and now the car drives without any of these issues. This site is fantastic and stoked to be part of the community.

Also, got 43 mpg on my first tank

Thank you for this thread. Helpful to newbies like myself.

When replacing the alternator pulley and tensioner, is it best to replace the shock for the tensioner as well, since the bouncing around may have ruined the old one? Or is replacing the tensioner itself sufficient? Last question - worth replacing the idler pulley at the same time?

Shock comes with the tensioner.
Don't remember if it has TTY bolts.
The bouncing is usually caused by a bad one way clutch on the alternator.

There is no shock or idler pulley on the BEW, just the one tensioner pulley that swings down.

A seized alternator pulley will cause the tensioner to jump around at idle, but it may be fine after you replace the alternator pulley. Run it too long with a seized alternator pulley though, and you will need a new tensioner.

Some aftermarket tensioners apparently use a 15mm wrench instead of a 16. Or at least the one the previous owner put on my car does...

Thank you both!

Just changed out my belt yesterday I have a 2006 TDI but the part number that the dealership gave me was for a belt that was to long. We spent several trips going back and fourth to the parts store until we just bought 3 of them at one time and found the right one. We ended up with
Gates: Micro V/ AT
K060410
6PK1045
13/16 x 41.75 long belt
Hope this helps someone else out because I have not seen part numbers on this or many other threads.

Hie guys

I recently bought a tdi alh (i am sure its a 2002) but the serpentine belt wasnt there, so may someone please inform me what size the belt is.
Thanx

They didn't list the size but here's the link:
https://www.idparts.com/serpentine-belt-gates-green-stripe-a4-alh-p-3615.html