For info.......I run a 2006 2.0 Octavia FSI Auto Elegancy Estate which I love.

However dispite the car being really cherished and all the right things being done at the right times the air conditioning compressor seized at just under 50,000 miles resently, the pulley shear system did not work so the serpentine belt was almost melted and thrown off causing me all kinds of problems getting the car home (no electrical charging).

£861 later and the car was back in service. I phoned Skoda customer service just to try to find out why this might have happened and why did the shear system not work thereby causing me such problems. The responce from them was that they had no idea why it should have seized and couldn't give a reason why the pulley didn't disengage and basicaly hard luck mate! Not very impressive!!

My reason for posting this is to ask if anyone knows if you can get a serpentine belt of the right length to cut out going around the air con compressor pulley? It's getting back to the old days when we used to carry a spare fan belt in the boot just to keep mobile.

Research shows that this is not an unknown event on VAG group vehicles so think on when planning your next long journey or holiday abroad, I was at least lucky in that I was not that far from home.

Hi,

I think you need 03G 903 137 A,this has been took off ETKA,as I need one too for a little project I will be doing after the winter.

If not someone will come up with the corrrect one.

Trev

Thank you for info Trev. Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

Your welcome,let me know if it was the right one please.

Trev

Hi Trev,

I guess the best way to check if that belt of the part number that you quoted would do the job would be if you had access to a car without a belt fitted, then you could run some string arond the belt run missing out the air con pulley and measure it. When I Googled your part number some of the sites actually gave the dimensions of the belts, this could be handy in deciding if the belt in question would do the job required.

AS my Octy is now back up and running as you can appreciate I'm reluctent to disturb things so don't hold your breath in me getting back to you with confirmation, but someone reading this may have been through the exercise and pass on the info.

On another point I was thinking over my motoring experience which extends over 50 years and included cars made in Britian, France, Japan, Italy and Germany and it occured to me that all the heaviest bills that I have suffered have always been on VW derived car's or components.