Serpentine belt shredding on edge

The serpentine belt on my 2015 Golf TDI with about 58k miles is shredding on the inner edge facing the engine. I started it one morning and it began to squeal, which was the first time I heard any kind of noise from it. As I continued driving, I noticed that the squealing lessened a bit but now the belt was coming apart on the edge.



Since the car is a CPO, I took it in to the dealer to get it looked at and was told I'll have to pay for a belt replacement since that alone isn't covered under warranty and they couldn't find any issues with the pulleys. They said they'll take a closer look at everything when I do bring it in for the replacement, and if they find anything wrong the job would get covered. I was thinking the tensioner might have gone bad, but their theory is that the belt just went bad due to age/wear



I find it a bit hard to believe that the belt would go like this given my relatively low mileage, but I'll probably go forward with them replacing it and see what they find. The price isn't very nice though. Any ideas?

Where in the "Northeast" are you? There are several really good TDI mechanics in the Boston area. Also, replacing the serpentine belt is a reasonably easy DIY job.

1854sailor said:

Where in the "Northeast" are you? There are several really good TDI mechanics in the Boston area. Also, replacing the serpentine belt is a reasonably easy DIY job.

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I'm in CT. Had I known it really was just the belt I would have done it myself and avoided all the fees. I thought they would find something else wrong and would only have to pay the $50 deductible, given how the belt got a bit off track and is oddly worn.

Of course it was just the belt why would they pony up additional parts/money when they can send you on the way with as little as possible and let it fail outside the CPO warranty?

I did notice some wearing on our belt at 50K looks like rubber debis down at the lower edge of the oil pan, others have noted a failing tensioner that chirped (which isn't covered by the extended emissions warranty)