Hi there:
Anyone have any advice on replacing the poly-ribbed belt tensioner on an A3 diesel (or anything else that has the self-tensioning alternator/AC belt)? Bently seems to be silent on the matter. Mine's making a rattling noise at idle. I replaced the idler/roller/pulley/whatever you like to call it already, the bearing had a lot of slop in it, but it didn't solve the problem. I noticed that when I put the wrench to the tensioner arm to do this replacement, the spring or whatever is in the tensioner itself was definitely not applying tension smoothly. It had a "crunchy" feel to it.
I *looks* like I just need to remove two allen head bolts and it should come right off, but I don't want any surprises like having the spring unwind and fly off.....
Is it possible to lube up the spring inside or is a new one in order?
A/B