E30 318iS Help - belts...

[gurj247]

I was having a look at my engine yesterday evening and noted that there was some wear on the Alternator V-Belt which also looked like it had been catching somewhere, as such i am planning on changing this when the car goes for its MOT tomorrow.

Looking at it it appears that there is another belt that needs to be removed in order to replace the Alternator V-belt as such i'm guessing i should replace that too, it looks like thats a v-belt too, is there anything else you would change while doing the above?

[Grrrmachine]

Would be handy to read through this first:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... ging_Belts

[gurj247]

Thanks for the quick response.

Looks fairly Straight forward and not too difficult a job, i may well just try and do this myself.

[mcbonio]

I'm guessing is an M20 engine?

If so, you need to remove the power steering belt to get the new alternator belt on. So its wise to change both at the same time as you'll be removing both anyway.!

[Brianmoooore]

Serious omission from that wiki article! It makes no mention of loosening the bolts that the pump or alternator hinge on, or slackening slightly the bolt at the other end of the adjuster rack. All these need to be undone slightly, and also tightened afterwards. Very important in the case of the alternator, since all the current it generates passes through these points.
Many of you will find that the toothed adjuster wheel and/or rack is damaged, and this is because someone previously has either failed to slacken off the other fixing points, as above, or slackened the bolt holding the adjuster wheel too much, allowing the teeth of the cog to slide off the side of the rack teeth. This bolt must only be slackened just enough to allow it to turn and the strap to slide.

[Rtaylor2208]

I'm guessing is an M20 engine?

If so, you need to remove the power steering belt to get the new alternator belt on. So its wise to change both at the same time as you'll be removing both anyway.!

The title of the thread it says 318IS, so not a M20

[gurj247]

Serious omission from that wiki article! It makes no mention of loosening the bolts that the pump or alternator hinge on, or slackening slightly the bolt at the other end of the adjuster rack. All these need to be undone slightly, and also tightened afterwards. Very important in the case of the alternator, since all the current it generates passes through these points.
Many of you will find that the toothed adjuster wheel and/or rack is damaged, and this is because someone previously has either failed to slacken off the other fixing points, as above, or slackened the bolt holding the adjuster wheel too much, allowing the teeth of the cog to slide off the side of the rack teeth. This bolt must only be slackened just enough to allow it to turn and the strap to slide.

Thanks for that bit of info.

[Grrrmachine]

Wiki's been adjusted accordingly. My apologies, the article was copied from a Yank site, so beware the trans-atlantic bodgers!