Auxiliary Belt Tensioners
 

Hi,

I'm in the process of replacing all 3 of the belts on my V70 D5. The new auxiliary belt kit poses a bit of a problem, though. Comparing the old and new belts showed them to be of the same dimensions, but the new tensioner was not the same as the old one. There are some key differences as the photos I'm attempting to upload will show. The new one has exactly the same locating peg and hole and will fit perfectly well in place where the old one was, but the new tensioner has a smaller diameter wheel which is closer in to its mounting. The torqx tension relief indent is also larger: T60 as against the old one's T45. Finally (and most significantly?) the old one shows arrows in the direction of rotation which is clockwise; the new ones are are stamped with arrows showing counter-clockwise although this isn't clear from the photos I can assure you that's how they're marked.
So the question is, should I go ahead and fit the new one - or not?
Thanks.

Hopefully the two sets of pictures showing new and old tensioners can be seen here:
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/vbpic...do=view&g=5932

Yes the new one is the updated version that doesn’t fail as often. I fitted the updated version to our v70 not to long ago. I was surprised a dealer hadn’t changed it as they were recalled apparently. Change the tensioner again in 54k miles along with the aux belt.

I seem to remember that when Volvo fitted a new mechanical tensioner (replacing the hydraulic tensioner) to my 58 plate V70 D5 under a safety recall in 2010, the new tensioner required a new fitting location to be drilled in the block.

I don’t know if this had anything to do with it (i.e. you still have the fitting holes only for the old tensioner), but someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly I’m sure.

The block on my particular D5 (which is T4 or later, apparently) has an elongated slot milled in it to accept the locating peg on the tensioner which enables it to take a range of spacing differences between the peg and the bolt-hole. But in any case, the peg and hole have identical size and spacing on the new tensioner as they do on the old one so there's no issue in that respect at least.

Good to hear that, thanks. I can certainly see why they went from T40 to T60 on that casting because the T40 is too easily chewed-up in the process of relieving the tension. If you don't get it right within a couple of attempts, you're screwed! The aux belt tensioner spring is *much* stronger than the cam belt one.

There is still the issue of the direction of rotation arrows, however. They are not the same, which would seem to imply that whilst the old tensioner wheel has the belt running inside the loop, the new one would have the belt running over the outside. :-/

Sounds to me that the 2012 recall hasn't been done. I changed mine last year and the new one was the same as the old one fitted on the recall in 2012. Check with your main dealer and you might get the update done free.