TDI belt change

[raunch]

Going to change the serpetine belt in my '05 Passat TDI. It looks rather straight foward, but I have never worked on a VW and I have heard that they can be interesting. Any tips or tricks?
Thanks.

[trbankii]

There are a few VW owners on here, but if you don't get an answer here you may want to try http://forums.tdiclub.com/

[raunch]

Been there, and nothing about the serpentine belt. Which is probably good in that it may be just a simple belt job. Lots of other good stuff though.
Thanks for the info.

[rustyk]

I can't speak to the VW specifically, but most serpentine belts normally just require detensioning the belt by moving the tensioner. Simple. I can change the belt in my Lexus or the motorhome in less than 5 minutes.

[raunch]

I can't speak to the VW specifically, but most serpentine belts normally just require detensioning the belt by moving the tensioner. Simple. I can change the belt in my Lexus or the motorhome in less than 5 minutes.


That pretty much sums it up, except that there is another belt that drives the A/C to remove. There is a little 'hidden' allen head bolt that loosens the tensioner for that belt, and it took some searching and posting in the TDI forum to figure that out.

The root of my problem, however, was the the PS pump fluid needed to be exchanged. No more growling from the pump. Had the tranny flushed too--the tiptronic trannies (don't know my specific number) are not lifetime fluids. The fluid that come out there looked terrible.