Looks like my Superb might be on the way out...

[dieselV6]

Started up this morning, got "ALTERNATOR WORKSHOP" on MAXI-DOT, then a smell of insulation. It would normally not be the end of the world, but my car's front carrier service position bolts are firmly stuck, at this point I am thinking acetylene torch to free them up, and I have no garage at the moment. Even if it is just the regulator gone, I do not see any way of replacing regulator without taking alternator off the engine.

 

I asked for quotes from local independents to free the bolts and replace the alternator (and possibly do the belts/water pump), let us hope there is some sensible response coming back, otherwise the car will be up for sale or spares  :S  Shame because I still like this car, though this is the first serious failure I've had in 10 years / 130k+ miles, so I'd say it was worth it so far.

Edited 25 January, 2016 by dieselV6

[jimbof]

Does it have to go into service position? On the 1.9 you can take the tension off the belt, slip it off the alternator, and then use a counter hold and 8mm or so hex remove the viscous fan pulley. Dropping it forward gives just about enough room to get the alternator out.

[rotodiesel]

The 2.5 is nowhere near as accommodating as the 1.9 for routine maintenance - belts, thermostat, water pump are a pain. As a result, I'm seeing a lot of these being prematurely written off for economic reasons whilst the 1.9s go to the moon - and back. A VP44 now is a death sentence.

 

It's a shame, but unless you can do the work yourself, it's probably curtains. How did the front panel mounting bolts get damaged - they're not that tight and I'm sure any competent mechanic would have greased the threads prior to replacement.

 

It wasn't a dealer was it?....

 

rotodiesel.

[pinstripe]

as jimbof  said or you just cut the bolt on the alternator and then replace it with two new ones...

[Gaz]

The alternator on mine was changed, under warranty, without moving the front of the car at all.  Mechanic that did it said it was fiddly, but do-able.

 

Gaz

[dieselV6]

Good to hear there may be a chance to replace the alternator even with stuck front lock carrier bolts, but as I stated, I have no garage at the moment, so it has to be done by a workshop.

And if I do put it in a workshop, they might as well free up the bolts and save me the trouble. I actually did inspect the alternator under the car yesterday, main trouble is getting access to the alternator belt, even to just slacken it off. I guess on a proper lift it might be doable.

 

Though a while ago I heard about garages with 2-post and 4-post lifts to rent by the hour/day, do you know of any in North Herts by any chance? The nearest one I found so far is in North London, and that is a bit too far to access with a broken (and overheating) alternator.

[Danny 57]

Are the "old" fashion car ramps still available from Halfords or online, if so that will give you safe access from under the car if you have the tools.

[jimbof]

I saw mention of having to move the aircon compressor out of the way on 2.5 Passats, I guess this is similar.

[oh_superb]

Oh dear, not good. I had rusty seized pinch bolts and after a week of struggle on my driveway ended up taking the car to a garage in order to specifically get them to use their experience / know-how to remove the pinch bolts which they did successfully. All I'm saying that it might be worth just getting them to free up the stuck bolts then you tackle the rest. If you can afford to take it off road for a while as this is likely not to be a 24 hour turnaround. My old superb is in brothers ownership now but we both know that a major failure now (now at 149900 miles :-)) will write the car off but anything that can be DIY'd is a major bonus as instructions are

Ever present all over the web and routine parts are relatively cheap. Like the brake servo we did last week, £85 delivered. Dealer quote was £900. As an example.

Edited 31 January, 2016 by oh_superb

[dieselV6]

Well, I asked for quotes at a couple local independents, one has not replied at all, the other refused to quote for the bolts unless they inspect the car. Since they are 15 miles away, and my alternator smells of burning insulation within 15 seconds of starting the car, I am not driving anywhere unless I know the cost of repair, because the car may refuse to come back.

 

With this in mind, I decided to attempt to free the bolts once again. Bought more tools, torx extractors for bolts not attempted yet and stud extractors for the cut off one.

I have been soaking the visible threads in brake fluid for past 2 days. Tomorrow I'll try to free them up again, let us hope they go out this time. If they do not, I will consider hydrochloric acid on the bolts.

 

In the meantime, I found source of new (as opposed to refurbished) Valeo 140A alternators. I do not need the car for the next 2 weeks, so if the bolts come out, I will start with alternator replacement If it works and takes less than a week then (weather permitting) I might follow up with timing belt job.

Edited 31 January, 2016 by dieselV6

[SuperbTWM]

You thought about using a decent impact wrench if you havea compressor. I think my Dad paid about £150 for a 1/2" drive that has about 1000Nm of torque and it makes my machine mart one look like a fisher price toy.

[jimbof]

In the meantime, I found source of new (as opposed to refurbished) Valeo 140A alternators.

Do tell, when I replaced mine I ended up with a TPS economy unit (which is a Valeo refurbished unit).  All the refurbs at ECP / GSF looked like junk with a quick paint job.

[dieselV6]

Brief update: lock carrier on my Superb is now freed :sun: , all bolts removed. 2 bolt heads cut off, 2 part cut off/drilled out, had to remove headlights and front part of lock carrier to have sufficient access. Once front was freed, remaining studs driven out using (mix and match of) stud extractor, locking pliers, heat and penetrant fluid. Took several hours but got there in the end. New Valeo alternator arrives next week, will post details once I have it.

Edited 2 February, 2016 by dieselV6

[oh_superb]

Good result!  :clap:

[dieselV6]

The new alternator for my car has arrived, and it is in fact a brand new Valeo 140A unit for £205. Considering ECP and others sell refurbished Bosch ones for £190+£130deposit, I'd say I made a good deal.

 

So, if you want to order a brand spanking new alternator for your 2.5 V6 engine, just get it from... Amazon.

For 2.5TDI V6 BDG engine, the 140A alternator has new part number 439392.

 

I you need it for other cars engines, use this Valeo catalog to find the new part number (note catalog lists also refurbished part numbers, so make sure you pick one from "new" column for your car).

 

Below is a photo of my car's old and new alternators (both are 140A Valeo units). 

.

 

 

I have done the timing belts, water pump and thermostat so far. I decided to keep the old thermostat, just tested it and replaced the o-ring, as new one was much worse quality and opening too early. 

On my car, the timing belts, water pump and thermostat looked pristine, but the V-belts require replacing all rollers as bearings were gone on two of them and there was excessive play in the other two.

 

I am still waiting for last replacement v-belt roller to arrive in the post, hopefully tomorrow, and then I can put the car back together. 

Edited 8 February, 2016 by dieselV6

[Danny 57]

Well done so far.

[oh_superb]

Good job. Keep us posted. I was just wondering about a couple of things as I plan to do the t belt and ancillaries soon too. Where did you get the part numbers for the ancillary rollers/ tensioners and what brand did you go for? Are you replacing hydraulic tensioner for t/belt? Most kits don't have it. And it's not cheap at around £70. My thermostat is utter ****e so was planning to replace. Did you test the new one with hot water? What opening temp do these v6s need? Thanks

[CRC]

Thanks for the info and congratulations for biting the bullet and going ahead with the job.

 

Interesting to know the condition of the timing belt and water pump as my timing belt is now coming up to 38,000 miles and 5 years old. We replaced the original at 50K miles and 5 years and it looked pristine when taken off, so I'm planning to ignore the "4 year" time scale and run it to the 80K interval, and have a good visual inspection each year.

 

Last year, (4 years and 30K), it looked like the belt had just been fitted, with all the labelling clearly visible.

[oh_superb]

Mine has done 75k miles and 6 years old so due imminently.  Have Gates on there.  Recently got a very good offer on Goodyear kit, but never used them, does anyone have experience of their kits?  Contitech are quite expensive by comparison, nearly double the price of Goodyear.  Also, shall I just get a main dealer / or TPS water pump and thermostat, or what brand to go for safely?  I don't want a seized water pump taking a belt out.  I also plan on replacing the ancillary belts too.  But again not sure of what brand to go for, but that's less critical.

[dieselV6]

I put the car back together on Wednesday and it is running well, in fact I am writing this from a mountain slope about 1000 miles away from home, and the Superb took us there including high speed autobahn run, so I'd say the belt job went just fine.

 

However, two minor snags emerged, one is that the new Valeo alternator makes a slight noise, either bearing or a fan scraping the case, was evident on installation but I had half-term trip coming up so could not afford another delay. Amazon has in fact already refunded in full, even before me returning the alternator (I have 30 days to return), but currently all 140A alternators are out of stock till April at Amazon. Though as as silver lining I found a stronger one, 150A new Valeo with them (and at a lower price), still waiting for availability date on this one. I am hoping availability on this one might be earlier, if not I'll have to get a refurbished one, or a stopgap cheap Chinese one. But I will have to take the car's front to service position again soon  .

 

The other minor snag was that during the trip, as soon as we entered Germany and sped up above 120mph, the chrome front grill surround with badge flew off the car. It had top 2 catches damaged last year by someone trying to nick the new Skoda badge off. I glued it afterwards with epoxy, but apparently not well enough.  Silver lining there again, as I have just ordered a badgeless grille for delivery next week...

 

 Also, one part number I cannot find and would like to renew are intercooler o-rings, part 8A on Etka diagram 145-90 for V6. The part number is not listed at all for any car BDG engine was used in. Do you know where to get hold of them?

 

Good job. Keep us posted. I was just wondering about a couple of things as I plan to do the t belt and ancillaries soon too. Where did you get the part numbers for the ancillary rollers/ tensioners and what brand did you go for? Are you replacing hydraulic tensioner for t/belt? Most kits don't have it. And it's not cheap at around £70. My thermostat is utter ****e so was planning to replace. Did you test the new one with hot water? What opening temp do these v6s need? Thanks

 

Mine has done 75k miles and 6 years old so due imminently.  Have Gates on there.  Recently got a very good offer on Goodyear kit, but never used them, does anyone have experience of their kits?  Contitech are quite expensive by comparison, nearly double the price of Goodyear.  Also, shall I just get a main dealer / or TPS water pump and thermostat, or what brand to go for safely?  I don't want a seized water pump taking a belt out.  I also plan on replacing the ancillary belts too.  But again not sure of what brand to go for, but that's less critical.

 

 

Rollers and tensioners for V-belts are correctly listed on ECP and GSF websites if you put in 2.5 tdi engined Superb, no need for VW part numbers, though they are  059903341J for grooved idler, 059903341 for smooth idler,  059145276 for alternator tensioner roller and 059206523B for airco tensioner. All rollers I used on alternator belt are made by INA, same as original on the car.

I did replace timing belt tensioner this time, I used the larger ContiTech belt kit (CT1015K2 + CT1018K1), got it at ECP, though they are cheaper elsewhere, including Amazon. I tested thermostats in hot water, opening temp is 87deg C, and they should be at least 8mm open at boiling. I had Febi water pump that I bought years ago, but if I was going to buy it, I would just get the biggest ContiTech kit that includes water pump. Gates and others are OK-ish, but for example injection pump tensioner I got with the last Gates kit was not very good, required re-tensioning after a while and distorted easily. The one I got now was much better. ContiTech is by far best quality, and prices have come down quite a bit since last time.

 

Edited 14 February, 2016 by dieselV6

[Danny 57]

Well done.

[dieselV6]

Just to close off the repair saga, I got fed up with waiting for unreliable suppliers and today I installed a refurbished 140A Valeo alternator that I got from GSF (gsf35 35% discount code is still valid, so after returning broken alternator the refurbished one cost me £113 ). Replacement alternator sounds OK so far, let's see how long it lasts. I hope I do not have to replace it again, but if I do, GSF is nearby and have these alternators on 1 day notice, and they come with 2 year warranty.

 

I have also installed the badgeless grille, photo below, personally I quite like it, but main benefit to me is that this grille is unlikely to separate from the car at speed on account of 11 screws holding it down. I got the grille from Superskoda, it came without fittings, sanded down in places and with a note "ready to paint", none of which was mentioned on Superskoda website, I won't paint it as after some further sanding and waxing it matches the look of bumper inserts. Fittings as shown on website would have not been useful anyway, as to install it properly you need to dremel out the old grille from its frame, then carefully drill 11 holes in the remaining frame (4 in plastic, 7 in metal) and screw the lot together. By installing just the front grill without the rear support frame you would lose bonnet supports that are present on metal carrier of the old grill, as well as contact surface for bonnet mounting area. In any case, all cutting and drilling took me about 1.5hrs.

 

Finally, a useful tidbit for all 2.5TDI owners, if ever you need intercooler pipe seals, part number that fits is 3C0 145 117 F. Make sure you oil these seals before placing them on the pipework, as they fit quite snugly and are easy to damage during fitting.

 

Edited 26 February, 2016 by dieselV6

[oh_superb]

Good job dieselv6 and well done on completing all the front end jobbies well… I will need to do the same soon.  One more major continental trip coming up to eastern Europe then to Hamburg, then back to the UK then over to Ireland for a few days then back to the UK.  I'll get the T belt etc done in April I hope.  I also hope I will not encounter rusty bolts like you did...

Yesterday I changed the automatic transmission oil and filter and it was not too bad, took about 4 hours, and I think after the next trip I am draining the oil and refilling again (I am not removing sump this time or the filter) as it is not possible to drain oil from the torque converter so only 60% of oil is fresh.  Once I have thrown another 5 liters at it the old oil contamination should be only 15-20%.  The old oil was thick and black at 75k miles since last change.  There was also a lot of swarf on the magnets and gunk at the bottom of the sump.  Although not the worst I have seen, so not concerned too much.  Gear changes are much smoother now and creep in D and R is significantly reduced too now.

If anyone is reading this with auto tranny, I recommend changing it every 40-50k.  Not too tricky DIY, but you do need VCDS to set oil level correctly.

Edited 28 February, 2016 by oh_superb

[jimbof]

What colour is (was) the oil you changed? When I did my rad I could have sworn the fluid was basically red but darkened with age,I didn't think red was right for these boxes...

[oh_superb]

No, red is definitely not right for these boxes.  It was golden coloured.  The stuff that came out was nearly black, and thick, and there was sludge at the sump bottom, and the removable magnets had metallic sludge on them. The whole thing was pretty gross.  A couple of old T shirts later, some clean absorbed lint free paper and brake cleaner action later the sump was mint and so were the magnets.  Very glad I have done this, very glad.

Oil is FEBI 14738.  If you wait patiently a 5 litre can be yours for 27 quid delivered.  There are other manufacturers also of course.  

The spec is LT71141.  Mobil do it too for 11 quid a litre or thereabouts.

 

I bought 2 x 5 litre cans to be sure, ended up needing 5.5 litres after 3 hours draining.  Initially 4.3 litres came out in first 20 mins after stopping engine (hot), but it kept pouring slowly, a bit was left in sump that could not come out by gravity due to drain plug being recessed, and some remained in the filter itself.  So in total 5.5 litres came out.  And 5.5 litres went back in following the correct procedure.  I had a messy moment when an hour after engine stopped, I dropped the sump and oil was still pouring quite fast from the internals of the transmission, then we got a gust of wind, and I was glad that I had a 2 square meter thick back polythene sheet under the car to protect the driveway (I got his from Screwfix, its a damp proof membrane, thick gauge) all over my and my brother's face who was assisting me, so we quickly put the sump back on with a couple of screws, said "phew!" and went back for a tea or two!  For a couple of hours.

You also need filter and gasket.  I used a rubber gasket supplied in Hans Pries kit.  OEM is paper and is non reusable.  Note some kits do not contain the gasket.  Do not use gunk/rubber gasket on the flange as any gunk in the tranny will have the tranny over.  Absolute cleanliness is paramount.  I just used a very thin smear of the VW gasket sealer to stick the rubber gasket onto the flange.  I am dropping the oil again next month and filling up with the remainder of the 4.5 litres of oil that I have, as you cannot drain the torque converter, so old oil contamination is quite bad (30-40 %).  After 2nd drain and fill this drops to only half as much.

 

 

BTW I also bought a CONTI kit today for timing belt.

 

 

Below are OEM references for auto transmission bits: 

 

FILTER - 01V 325 429 - 108 759

GASKET - 01V 321 371 - 108 757

OIL: G 062 152 A2

Edited 29 February, 2016 by oh_superb