Aux belt change C270CDI

[JoeHorner]

Further to my post on "what have you done..." I thought people might find the following useful regarding changing the aux belt on a W203 C270CDI (may also apply to others)

I'd got a belt about a year ago but been putting it off because it looked like a pig and the book said lots of dismantling for access.

Today the car forced my hand.



Having managed to clear the bird's-nest of belt around the power steering pump I was faced with the problem of being just off the A55 with no proper tools - certainly nothing to remove the fan etc or move the tensioner.

After much swearing and head scratching I found that it IS possible - I'm fact, quite easy - to fit the belt round everything except the (smooth and accessible) water pump pulley then give it a good pull to slip it onto the water pump.

Clearing the debris took about 45 minutes, sweating took another half hour, once I thought to try that way actually fitting it took less than 5 minutes.

So, in future, changes will be:

* Cut old belt off
* Loop round and pull firmly onto water pump.

Easy-peasy

 

[rifiki]

Had same problem a few years ago. The idler pulley let go without warning and shredded the belt.
Fit a new idler pulley even if appears to be OK. You be surprised how small the bearing is.

 

[JoeHorner]

Will do but for yesterday it was a case of get it on, get it moving. I was on the A55 when it happened, headed to an athletics meet, and just managed to get off a slip road before temp got too scary with no water pump.

No tools, no breakdown cover, happened to have a belt (was planning to change it "when I had time") and about 2 hours to get moving and another 50 miles if I wasn't going to miss my first event.

So pulley & tensioner seemed like a fair risk to take in the circumstances!

The main take-home, though, was that it's possible (in fact, quite easy!) to fit a new belt without stripping everything the book says AND without having a suitable socket / bar to release the tensioner with