Idler pulley gone, took belt with it!

[JimmyBurnWorld]

Having had a full belt service (180k) done last Friday, I had my power steering suddenly dissapear last night.

On inspection, my new auxilliary drive belt was lying separated in the bottom of the engine bay, and I am down to only 5 pulleys on that side of the engine ('03 V70 D5). By the looks of the remaining axle on the side of the engine, my idler pulley has come adrift and taken out the new belt.

I have contacted the garage who did the belt service, and they're sorting it. Apparently they had checked the pulleys when the belt was off and they felt fine.

So, word of warning, at 180k it looks like a new set of idler/tensioners is a good investment.

Cam belt was changed along with water pump and associated pulleys so I'm not fretting about that too much.

Have to say, the V70 takes some steering without PAS! Forget 3 point turns!

[M-R-P]

Many garages change aux belt and pulleys when doing the timing belt, as a matter of course.
So long as the garage is fixing it, you should be ok.

Yeah V70s are hard to steer with no power - I blew a charge air hose off when booting the T5 up the dual carriageway, she stalled at 60, no steering, no brake assist. Was a bit of a bum twitcher to say the least!

[cherry1809]

she stalled at 60, no steering, no brake assist. Was a bit of a bum twitcher to say the least!

Lol. :D

[JimmyBurnWorld]

All fixed.

As the garage I use is near work, 30 miles away, I didnt fancy a non PAS journey on A roads. Plus the prospect of the battery dying at any point. Add to that the fact that a certain Stoke dealership carries NO STOCK of parts, not even a belt for a D5, I abandoned that idea.

Trip to William A Lewis, a very hepful Pete in Parts, £130 and 2 hours on my driveway in the autumn sunshine and we're all going again, with genuine Volvo tensioner, idler and belt. Can't complain for a saturday and genuine parts.

Found the rogue Idler pulley, sans ball bearings, sat on the wishbone when I took the drivers side wheel off!

Tensioner was in ok nick, but having had one supposedly 'ok' pulley suddenly fail, I changed the lot.

[M-R-P]

Happy days! nice when you achieve a good standard of work, knowing you saved yourself a few quid is nice too.
I'd try to get some money back from the garage, since they should have had it all sorted to start with.

[AndysR]

Sounds like a job well done in the end despite the consequences that may have occured had it have failed at motorway speeds with no immediate ability to slow and pull over.