Hi,

I have a strange problem and hoping someone technical can help.

The OH was driving home the other night when the battery light appeared on the dash. I was away so asked her to take a pic to see if the belt had snapped or been thrown. The belt was in place but the tensioner was at a right odd angle making it appear it had come unbolted and fallen out of its hole. (its a 53 reg 1.9 SDI with aircon so has the small round tensioner assembly that slides into a hole and is secured by one fiddly bold that runs through the alternator mounting bracket)

She has AA home start so I suggested she rang them. They came out and the bloke said he couldnt do anything with it as it was broken.

I arrived back today and lifted the tensioner from its housing in 10 seconds flat and could see it had come unbolted. Upon closer inspection I found the end of the bolt in the housing indicating the first 6mm or so of the bolt had actually sheared off. I thought this was odd as its not really under any great load. Anyway I popped to skoda to get a new bolt. Said he couldnt get one till next tuesday but gave me the size as an M8 x 40 so I went to the local motorfactors and bought one.

It took me ages and lots of messing around to get the bolt to stick far enough through the hole to actually locate into the tensioner and start to do up. It would not pull through at all and stripped the first few mm of the bolt.

I'm now beginning to think this is why the pprevious one sheared because not enough of the bolt was located into the tensioner.

My questions are hence, can anyone confirm the bolt for this job is indeed an M8 x 40 and if yes, are there any other known issues which might prevent the bolt from making it through properly? It all looks clean and the socket appears to slide in true and seems to make full contact with the housing when fully in.

Its really left me scratching my head today. :(

Some aftermarket tensioners require a different length bolt.

Does the tensioner have a part number on it?

What is the 3-character engine code from the options label (under boot carpet or in the service log book)?

Thanks for the quick reply. I think its an ASY but will confirm. The hole in the tensioner is plenty long enough and the housing which holds the diesel pump, alternator and aircon pump will of course be a genuine item. 

 

If I take the tensioner out of the housing, and put the bolt in place it only appears to push through the hole but just a few mm. Odd as skoda today told me it was that size.

 

If nobody had a categoric answer tonight, I may well just buy an M8 x 50 and see how that looks. 

Would it be bolt 22 here? If so it's M8x50...

 

You're a complete star, thanks for that. 

You're welcome

I have a Skoda fabia 2006 SDI ASY with AirCon.

Today my drivebelt slipped of and I found that the belt tensioner holding bolt which goes trough the behind (near oil dip stick) was cutted off and the tensioner is moving freely.

However i cannot seem to figure out how to remove the tensioner from above. You said it took you 10 seconds only.

Would in imply that the broken bolt is not letting it come out?

Or is alternator removal necesarry to get to it?

Then again cannot remove the alternator from above to as lower bolt hits the chasis and cannot get entirely out of its hole?

Thanks

Edited 7 July, 201411 yr by pavinjo