Bad alternator pulley?

Hi all-

I have an 05 Golf TDI and been having a lot of belt chatter and groaning during turning. I already swapped out the belt and changed the tensioner thinking I could get away with a cheap fix. After inspecting the alternator pulley, it appears that it turns the alternator in both directions (I could visually see the fan blades inside the alternator turn each way). I am assuming that this means that the pulley is seized up? I just want confirmation before I start wrenching.....

Thanks in advance,
Benjie

Would be a good place to start. You will need the tool from metalnerd to get the pulley off and then you have to buy a pulley. Not really expensive and you have do it in about an hour (including having time to drink a beer).

You need to hold the fan blades and try to spin it both directions. If it freewheels in both directions OR doesn't freewheel at all = > it's bad.

I just stuck a screwdriver in the alternator to hold the blades and tried to hand crank the alternator.... wont budge. So looks like I have a pulley purchase to make. How obscure is that driver from Metalnerd anyways? Is that something I could find at another tool supply house?

Thanks for all the help!
Benjie

Just buy the metalnerd tool set. You are still saving a small fortune doing this repair yourself. Just mail order both the tool and the pulley from IDparts.com, all for about $100. The alternative is to have a shop replace the alternator for $400 plus.

--Nate

Listen to PDJetta. The shop will just say it is your alt and charge you for that and may even put your old pulley bad on only to fail completely. Order online and keep driving till it gets there. Just be careful because if it gets really bad some have exploded. I did a 1500 mile trip with mine making my bat light come on and off. I didn't have a choice and didn't want to do it but I also didn't want to drive my rabbit that far either (cruise, quite in the cab, etc). Good luch finding the tools other then metal nerd. At least you can get the newer set so you don't have take the alt out of the car like some folks of the past. Remember so you don't mess it up. Make sure both tools are FULLY SEATED before trying to remove. Also it is like a nut on a bolt. Lefty loosy righty tighty. I have read of several people messing this job up because of those two things.

I appreciate your advice. I went ahead and purchased both the pulley and tools from idparts.com. After 2nd day fedex my total was $105 and some change. Not bad at all.

Benjie

bendiesel said:

I just stuck a screwdriver in the alternator to hold the blades and tried to hand crank the alternator.... wont budge. (snip)

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__. You did the right thing. MsLauraLee's '03 waggin was making the "serpentine rattle" noise; ordered a new one and Tom Earl in Stafford VA put it on; in so doing, he found that the original pulley was seized solid. He ordered the tools and Laura ordered the pulley. All fixed. A number of people have reported the loose/rattely serpentine belt tensioners (at fairly low mileage) and have also found the pulley to be locked. Apparently, this isn't common and quite a few of us are working on the theory that the seized pulley will cause damage to the belt tensioner.

When my alternator pulley failed (it locked solid on its shaft) I replaced the serpentine belt tensioner out of principle (although it was about 5,000 miles later when I replaced the timing belt and relatee parts).

--Nate

mrGutWrench said:

Apparently, this isn't common and quite a few of us are working on the theory that the seized pulley will cause damage to the belt tensioner.

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Suppose I can strengthen the theory that a seized pulley would result in a damaged tensioner by not paying attention to a noisy belt.

Luckily the tensioner didn't take anything else with it.

Noise?

I have a B5.5 Passat and just started to hear a growling/chattering noise ONLY after turning to the left and only on the return to straight wheel. Last summer I replaced the alternator (went bad) and the alternator pulley (proactively). Is this the kind of noise to expect when the pulley starts to go?

What about the belt tensioner? Any noises from that when it starts to go?

This only happens on the return from a left turn.

That would be a wheel bearing you are hearing and not the alternator. I have had both my wheel bearing and alternator pulley fail last fall. They were totally different sounds. I know one was the pulley as my battery light started to come on and the sound was coming from the tensioner area and replacing the pulley on the alt fixed the sound. The wheel bearing was only turning one direction and it was a low howl. I ended up replacing both from wheel bearings as I replaced the good one first thinking it was the bad one. I bought enough to do both sides just in case and once the bearing was out and I inspected the race was really bad on the inboard side of the passenger side.

Thanks, I'll get the wheels in the air and check it out.

bendiesel said:

I appreciate your advice. I went ahead and purchased both the pulley and tools from idparts.com. After 2nd day fedex my total was $105 and some change. Not bad at all.

Benjie

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FYI To Benjie and others. Another reason for going to GTGs, to meet TDIers that might have some of these odd tools and be willing to loan them or rent them cheap.

Ben

Looks like my CV joint (driver's side axle) is clicking. Boots are good too! How nice after only 86K miles.

Testing the alterntor pulley:

So, from what I've been reading, I think the varied idle I have and slight flicker in the lighting is from a bad alternator pulley. In order to test this, can I take the S-belt off and start the engine, without damage?

The problem that is making me worried is that the lights slightly flicker, especially visible at night, and there is noise behind the radio that sounds like it is straining to stay on. This can't be good, but I had no codes when I checked last weekend. It sometimes goes away after some driving, or will continue for my whole commute home at night.

Diesel purge didn't make a difference, and using my demo mode vag-com software showed no codes. I watched the engine block 001 graph without much a noticable change in the graph, from cold.

I just want to check my suspicion, and then take it to my trusted mechanic (lakeside auto, northside Richmond) and possibly give them the part to change for me. (better than giving my car for 4 days while they order the part like I would.)

You can run it with out the belt since the waterpump is driven from the timing belt.

Sigh

Well, ran it without the s-belt, and I think I noticed the noise and fluttering after I put it back on, but not while it was off. However, the alternator pulley turned one direction pretty well and wasn't frozen or backwards freewheeling. I think I will just go take it in later and see if my mech can figure it out.

only other thing I think I could try is to change the timing with the vag-com.

Thanks for the advice.