Hi Briskodians

My wife was just going to pull out of her brothers drive when she heard a loud bang. she turned the car off and called the AA. now i will add at this point that i haven't got a clue about how cars work. The AA guy has said that it was the Bearing Tensioner pully on the power stearing and alternator has gone. it hasn't broke the cam belt though. we are hopeing that the 12 month warranty will cover it as we have only had the car 3 months.

The Patient is a 03 L&K 1.9 tdi (110) with 68K on the clock has anyone heard of this before? Has anyone had experience with these warranty companys as i'm sure they will try to wriggle out of paying up.

Yes plausible, the auxiliary belt tensioner breaking on the 110s, not unheard of at all

Thanks for the reply mate.

I dunno if you will get a warranty claim accepted for that - what level of warranty do you have?

A replacement belt I guess would only be a few quid, not sure on the price for a new tensioner - not loads I am sure - fairly quick and easy to change though :-)

Not sure about the level of cover as i'm in London and i live in shropshire and i cant check. We are going to get a local garage to look at it and then ring the warranty company depending on the cost. The AA guy didn't think it was a big job either, he said it was just awkward to get to so hopefully your right.

Thanks Tom

New belt and tensioner - fairly easy job and a doubtful under warranty as it's one of those things which go with wear and tear, so 5+ years old assuming was the original one.

well at leasts it shouldn't cost to much if its not covered, thats reassuring

Thanks pal

while we are on the subject are these items supposed to be changed at all in past services? or do you do it when you feel like it? I have got a 51 reg passat with 83k on the clock should i check the service manual to see if they have been changed?

They do break and alot of people just replace the auxiliary belt tensioner. This is a symptom of the problem, which is a seized alternator belt pulley. The alternator belt pulley is designed to freewheel in one direction, when they seize the extra jolting causes the tensioner bracket to break. The last one I saw had had an alternator fitted 12 months previously by a Skoda dealer and for some reason they hadn't ensured that it had the correct pulley fitted, this had a solid one fitted.

Tensioner is around £75 and alternator pulley around £70 all + VAT.

Hi Fordfan

So what your saying is to replace the pulley regardless of how good or bad it seems. Will my garage know this or should i tell them.

tom

Get them to check it, the alternator pulley should freewheel in one direction. We found out about the problem when we did just the tensioner only on a car and then 15 months later the car came back with the same problem, so we looked into it a bit more. I am writing about the actual alloy casting breaking close to the belt damper mounting.

Remember that any warranty is in addition to your statuatory rights and the dealer should stand by it for 6 months, if the warranty company say it isn't covered then it should be up to the dealer who sold it to sort something out.

Let the garage know about it and ensure that any work is authorised by whoever is paying for it before the repair is done.

Thanks Very much for your advice its really helpful

Tom

Hi Guys

Just for the records it was the alternator that went bang. The waranty company have said they will pay for it and the the labour £240 thank goodness. all we have to pay is £20 for a new belt.

Thanks for your help guys.

Just out of interest, are you sure your car is a 110, as I was under the impression that all the L&K variants were 130's

Hi Mate

Yes definitely a 110 in fact most L&K's of that octavia are 110's. They only started putting the 130 pd engine in towards the end of production of that model they then released the current model.

Tom

A touch late, but this is exactly what happened to mine 26 days after I bought it. Yes it was covered by warranty.

Now, try and get a copy of the invoice, because if you do there's a 12 months warranty on the replaced bits.

Thanks pal i will do so:) it must be a bit of a weakness in the octavia. However Never had any probs with my TDI 90 octavia. Hopefully i wont have any more probs for a while.

Tom