I see a number of posts on the forum about aux. belt tensioners having to be replaced, and how the alternator clutch can be the cause, but mostly for the Octavia Mk I it seems.

 

My Octy II (2009 1.6TDI PF) has had a new cambelt kit when she sprung a leak in the waterpump 3 years and 20k km ago (I'm now at 147000km). A few months later I got squealy noises on a cold engine, which turned out to be a failing belt tensioner, which was replaced.

 

The noises are back when it's cold and humid and the engine cold (and lights flicker a bit), already, so I'm looking at yet another repair and I'm beginning to wonder if this is another of those parts that will reliably break down much sooner than on other make/models.

Should I have the alt. clutch checked or is that no longer an issue on my car/engine?

 

Annoyingly it seems there is no way to display the alternator voltage output on the dashboard, or is there?

if a cheap tensioner was fitted it may be a problem already but the pully bearing can be cleaned and regreased if it's not complained for too long  the alt' clutch can be checked while the belt is off  re voltage get a cheap volt meter to plug into the cigar lighter    e bay  @£3

The tensioner wasn't very expensive AFAICR, but I may have been comparing to the price of the belt change (around 640€).

 

Can these things be installed in a sloppy way or do they need some kind of setting-up? I know that the same mechanic never really got the corresponding work done right on my wife's old C3 (though I'm not sure that one actually had a tensioner).

 

I'm guessing that getting the belt off to check the clutch isn't something you do in the cold on the side of the road (which is what my usual parking spot looks like)? How much time could a mechanic charge for this, reasonably?

would have thought the instalation was fool proof BUT?    no I wouldn't do it as you describe,   it's a but of a fiddle,    but I can't think it would be more than an hours work to remove the belt check clutch + tensioner and belt inspection and grease the pulley bearing if needed

Good, I thought it'd not be something I'd want to do in the poor excuse for a garage I have ...

 

I'm not driving much these days with all the snow, but will take the car to the shop when temps go up so I can assess whether or not that reduces the slippage. More likely than not the tensioner is ripe to be replaced, which means the work to check the bearing and/or clutch has to be done anyway. I'll take it up with them if they want to order additional parts that may not be needed, or keep the car an extra day or so if needed. They're just across the village, easy walking distance if I don't count the fact we're on different hill tops :)

practice your galic shrug

I'm exercising my garlic as we speak, more useful here 8-)

 

(seriously, if that was a pun on something I said I didn't get it)