Xantia HDi 110 aux belt / tensioner

Unread post by **RichardW** » 10 Oct 2010, 13:38

Today is car fixing day (SWMBO has gone away for the week, so I have both cars!). Alternator now out on the bench and in pieces - front bearing is the noisiest - need to get it to may mate with an impact driver to get the pulley off and remove the bearing mounting plate. Getting it out is not as bad as it might seem....

Disconnect the battery

Remove (half the car

):

Engine upper and lower covers
Intercooler pipe
Oil filter
Ecu and box
OSF wing liner

There's a wiring harness in a plastic tray across the front of the engine, undo a bolt at either end and ease it upwards (noting that it has a pin that goes into the alternator bracket) - about an inch and it will sit on the fuel filter drain plug.

You need to get the aux belt off now - the spring tensioner is 15mm - which happens to be the size of a push bike pedal spanner - which are nice and thin by design

. With the ECU box out of the way, I was able to get this on the tensioner and turn it enough to get a pin (4mm) in the second hole in the bracket, which leaves enough room to get the aux belt off.

Remove the wires from the alternator and cut away the cable tie holding them to the bracket (a bit of a challenge....!). Now you can remove the four (!) mounting bolts.

Re-set the wiring harness to roughly its original posiion and there is *just* enough room to wiggle the alternator out past the PAS pipe and top hose (which needs a bit of a squish). Note that the 2 inboard bolts have a collar and taper fitting in the bracket which may be loose - recover the bits if so.

Surprisingly only took about an hour!

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 10 Oct 2010, 15:16

Well done Richard that job sounds like a right pig.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 17 Oct 2010, 14:06

Now back together. Turned out to be front bearing in the alternator that was shot - the slip rings and brushes were looking a bit worn too. My mate got the pulley and front casing off, but didn't have a suitable puller for the bearing. Took it to an alternator repair place who hummed and harred a bit and we decided an exchange item was the best bet - £111 so not too bad. Got it home and fitted it, started up, charge light went out...then came back on after about 30s

Wandered off to get the meter to check, and by the time I got back the alternator was smoking

Stripped it out again, and when turned over it was just catching somewhere inside. A 70 mile, 2 hour round trip later on Saturday morning (place was near work

) and I had a second exchange alt. Now fitted and working. Blimey it's quiet! Had the duff one out in about 15mins, got it sussed now

Trick is to lift the alt over the PAS pipe firs before going across and then out to the right of the top hose, rather than trying to squeeze it between the rad and the pipe.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 18 Oct 2010, 12:05

And as a bonus this morning I found that the steering wheel controls for the radio have started working again

This is an aftermarket Kenwood stereo I fitted a couple of years back, including the (expensive and large) wheel control interface unit, which after about a year stopped working. It appears that the time with the battery off has re-set things and it's working again. Not sure how long for, but be pleased for small mercies

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 18 Oct 2010, 12:56

blimey Rich, can't believe you had to get that second one out !
well done, next time you have to mess around in that area it will be easier

I have both cars for the next fortnight

so can completely destroy them before SWMBO comes back from Nepal

( I could not afford to go, no way!)

Unread post by **RichardW** » 18 Oct 2010, 13:37

I was, er, a bit annoyed at the time

but these things always happen to me, so I was not that surprised really

And the repaired rear screen wiper works better than it has ever done, so that is another bonus.