[s-cars] Serp belt woes

[Aaron Ryba]

My serp belt tensioner is displaying the characteristic rattling noise upon load however I just replaced it barley over a year ago (~7k mi) along with the belt when doing the TB job. There is also a rolling, rubbing noise which I assumed was the bearing. WTF! I am thinking as I paid over $200 for the OE part and belt.

So I pulled the part with the intension of sending it back to Blau for a warranty consideration however the 1 year warranty is now eclipsed. 

The service technician suggested perhaps the belt was stretched. I might buy that because my AC compressor seems to be draining a lot of power when it kicks in and it did see some good use this past summer. I have only owned the car for the last 1.5 yrs so I don't know the history of the old tensioner & compressor problems. Does this stretched belt diagnosis sound like a possible scenario to anyone?

I am ordering a new belt to test the theory this weekend.

I did pull the tensioner and run the engine without it hooked up and viola, no noise. The steering pump is new so I know thats not the problem. Also, I noticed that when I pulled the tensioner it looked like the bearing was rubbing up against the TB cover as if the tensioner wasn't tight enough. The one bolt near the therm was a little loose but only by 1/4 turn at most. Maybe the additional stress the stiff AC compressor is putting on the tensioner has done this??

(I know the AC compressor has to be replaced soon , or at least have the bearings replaced as it squeals at mid to high rpm.)

Aaron Ryba
95 S6




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