Alternator belt change

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mjb
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Alternator belt change

Post by mjb »

ARGH! PAIN!

Such an easy job made so bloody difficult by Peugeot! I am, of course, referring to the plastic panels. The two in the wheel arches and the undertray. And then I couldn't find my stash of zip ties to replace the broken bolts so my undertray's now held on by a few tied up bits of wire :evil:


For anyone planning on doing this job on a petrol turbo car:
1. Unplug the ECU and the relay box next to it. Move the lot over to near the windscreen out the way
2. Remove the ECU housing (2x 8mm bolts)
3. Jack the car on the drivers side, support on an axle stand as well.
4. Remove the drivers side front wheel and the plastic wheelarch lining (lots of torx screws, most will have rusted to the point you need to use pliars/molegrips to shift 'em. They're all angled upwards so WD40 won't do anything
5. Remove the undertray from underneath the front of the car. 3x 10mm bolts at the front and 2 10mm washered nuts at the back, but beware the nuts are attached to some stupid little thing which a) will break and b) will be a pain in the rear to grab through the small hole with a pair of short-nosed pliars. Do the drivers side first as you'll be able to see what you're up against. You'll have to do the passenger side blind if you don't fancy taking the wheel+liners off that side as well (you won't!)
6. See the tensioner? WD40 it! See the square hole in it? Shove a 3/8in ratchet in it, put a 12in minimum extension bar on the end of the ratchet, and turn anti-clockwise. You may have to work it a bit first before it'll shift. When you've gone far enough, a 4mm allen key can be shoved in the little hole to lock it in place. Be extremely careful you don't knock the car off the stand/jack like I did! It does require a MASSIVE amount of torque to shift - I had 18in of leverage and needed more so I could free a hand to put the allen key in.
7. Cut the belt off. Don't waste time trying to work it out, you'll spend enough time trying to get the replacement in. Took 20 mins of fiddling before I had it
8. Do the above in reverse to get your car back in one piece. You may need to drill the undertray and use zip ties to hold it on :(



I really can't see why such insane torque is needed to shift the tensioner! I really don't want to work out the numbers for what it'd take to need 2 hands at 18" of leverage, but it's a hell of a lot!

I'm glad I managed it though!

Next weekend (if the weather's good and my back's recovered by then) I might have another crack at the cambelt. I figure the only sensible way to attack it is to remove the ECU box, the vacuum valve (I think that's what it is) and *shudder* the engine mount
<steve_earwig> I think this forum is more about keeping our cars going with minimal outlay than giving our cars more reason to go bang
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jameslxdt
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Post by jameslxdt »

its not that bad, if you've got nimble fingers like me you can leave the wheel on and dont need to remove the ecu box, you should really have changed the tensioner, as it will start squealing quite badly, or if your really unlucky, it will just explode, this happend on my old 1.9 td 406 when trying to start it
Peugeot wrote:what are you worried about? we made car that lasted 10 years"..."Zat is very goode non? :|
FAQ - 406 D8 petrol (excl. V6) running and starting problems
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Post by mjb »

I've got nimble fingers, but unfortunately tree trunk forearms which make reaching stuff very difficult! Also a new tensioner is waaaay out of my budget :( I'm going to have to take the chance with the tensioner - I did free it up a *lot* though. If it dies and the belt snaps I'll lose aircon and get the battery light on the dash but it shouldn't be fatal should it?

I'm still in a mild panic about the prospect of doing the cambelt though. Am I right in thinking the only reasonable course of action is to nuke that engine mount? I'm worried that the rubber bushes might die when it's removed, and I'm worried I may not be able to lever the crankshaft pulley off. I'm worried about a lot of things to do with this in fact :/
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Post by jameslxdt »

if that belt snaps as a result of that tensioner failing it may throw the belt in to the cambelt, and believe me those cambelt covers will do nothing to stop it
Peugeot wrote:what are you worried about? we made car that lasted 10 years"..."Zat is very goode non? :|
FAQ - 406 D8 petrol (excl. V6) running and starting problems
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Post by maglite »

Does anyone know if the Aux belt interval is the same for the D9 as it is for the D8 diesels?

I usually change the Aux belt on my D8 every 30k. I have had an Aux belt snap on me a while ago on the motorway. The steering went hard, and all the lights went dim. Pulled up on the hard shoulder and popped the bonnet. It seemed like it was the tensioner that caused that to happen. When it happened, I thought it was something more serious, luckily nothing else got damaged. The AA man said it happens a lot to quite a few FRENCH cars.
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Post by niz406 »

jameslxdt wrote:if that belt snaps as a result of that tensioner failing it may throw the belt in to the cambelt, and believe me those cambelt covers will do nothing to stop it
The aux belt tensioner on the turbo is very good.... after 140k+ miles it's still going strong... minus the allen key / locking / locator hole that I broke by turnng it the wrong way when trying to remove the allen key, hey I can't help it..... it was after a long day lmao..... allen key and tensioner hole broke! Opps ! :D :lol:

MJB..... dude, 2 hands to move it, yours must have been welded on lol :D I can move it with one hand and put the allen key in place, me thinks you were attacking it from the wrong angle! or it was welded :D

Also I know what you mean about the under tray and wheel arch lining, luckily I managed to remove it without taking the ecu / engine mount off..... just like the cam belt... :D where there's a will, theres a way! :D
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Post by mjb »

niz406 wrote:MJB..... dude, 2 hands to move it, yours must have been welded on lol :D I can move it with one hand and put the allen key in place, me thinks you were attacking it from the wrong angle! or it was welded :D
It really was stuck... In the end I scraped a huge pile of crud off it to reveal the goldish centre bit, went round the outside of that with a small screwdriver to clear the channel, scraped the crud from the sides, then WD40'd it by spraying onto a large flathead screwdriver and then pouring it where I needed it. I didn't want to get WD40 on the pulleys...
I managed to remove it without taking the ecu / engine mount off..... just like the cam belt... :D where there's a will, theres a way! :D
Howwwwwww?!?!?! :)
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Post by niz406 »

Well once you have locked the tensioner in place, the belt simply lifts off the PS pump and alternator pullys, then you work from under the wheel arch to remove it from the tensioner and crank shaft pully. I've done it so many times now that its almost an art lol :D

The hardest part is passing the pully behind the tensioner ..... :shock:
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Post by mjb »

niz406 wrote:The hardest part is passing the pully behind the tensioner ..... :shock:
Yeah that's what I discovered. Getting the belt either side of it to twist at the same time without hitting those bolts on the alternator is annoying :)


When I said 'how' though, I was referring to how on earth you can do the cambelt without removing half the car...
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Post by niz406 »

Oh right, because I have a small socket set and the job isn't that hard tbh.... the hardest part is removing the belt cover bolt close to the engine mount :D takes forever using a 16mm spanner because sockets don't fit!
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Post by dervpower »

which model you referring too? i just replaced the infamous crankshaft pulley and belt and didnt find it too bad after working out how it went,removed inner wheelarch plastic but not lower cover or ecu box didnt change the tensioner either thets on a hdi?
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Post by munky »

I'm having a bit of trouble getting my alternator belt off my R reg 1.9td (got a/c too, suppose that'll make it more difficult) and seen as you guys seem to know what you're talking about I thought i'd ask you!

Its probably a really simple thing im missing here but I cant see where im supposed to put the bit in to lock it in place!?!

Got the wheel lining off and all that, can see the square hole and losened the retaining bolt so the pulley is able to be turned via the square hole but just cant see where these holes are.

I dont even want to take it off completely, just to get a new alternator in!

Thanks for any help
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Post by mjb »

dervpower wrote:which model you referring too?
2.0 Petrol Turbo. Enough space to drop a small spanner and not much more!

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Post by mjb »

munky wrote:Its probably a really simple thing im missing here but I cant see where im supposed to put the bit in to lock it in place!?!

Got the wheel lining off and all that, can see the square hole and losened the retaining bolt so the pulley is able to be turned via the square hole but just cant see where these holes are.
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Tensioner's the lump in the middle. Apply ludicrous amounts of torque to turn the square hole anticlockwise then put a 4mm allen key in the small hole just up and left from it.

But TBH it sounds like you've got a manually adjusted tensioner, which'll be completely different...
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Post by jameslxdt »

if you havent got a/c then it will have a manual tensioner
Peugeot wrote:what are you worried about? we made car that lasted 10 years"..."Zat is very goode non? :|
FAQ - 406 D8 petrol (excl. V6) running and starting problems
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