[V8] Topic: Serpentine belt installed incorrectly. Discuss.

[Ed Kellock]

Recently, I removed the serp belt to try to isolate the source of a
rattle.  I've got a new oil pump bearing on the bench, even though
last night I could have sworn it was the water pump.  I also had the
driver's side timing belt cover off.  When I replaced it, the noise
was far less audible.

Anyway, this will be sort of like a guy who just fell overboard,
chumming the waters himself but...

I reinstalled the serpentine belt incorrectly.  I thought I had it
right and it went on just fine, so I didn't think much of it.  The
faint bearing squeak that I heard when I started the car made me think
a serp belt idler was going too.  It seemed to go away fairly quickly.
 Then when I was backing the car off the ramps I noticed I had no
power assist.  At the same point I also noticed I was backing over a
spare subframe I had slid under the rear of the car.  This
sufficiently confused/distracted me that it took me a little longer to
dial in on the serp belt.  When I did finally, I went and got the
diagram and corrected the issue.

Everything seems fine afterward.  I didn't run it that long or at
great rpm when it was wrong.  A fairly short drive afterward yield
perfectly normal behavior.

Now I'm wondering what components I may have shortened the life of.
I'm trying to determine just which ones may have been run backwards
due to my error.

Why do I own 5 15+ year old Audis... especially when I apparently have
considerable monkey-lad potential?  I've actually taken tomorrow off
work to work on cars.

Ed