Aux. belt tale of woe!
 

My 2012 XC60 D3 (5cyl) is on 88K miles, so being cautious, I thought it was about time for another aux. belt and tensioner. I've read many a tale on here of aux. belt failure damage, so didn't want to get caught out.

The original was changed at 4 years and approx. 50k miles, so I booked it in at my local independent for no.3.

The wife was on her way to the garage when the car ‘died’ after a loud noise in the engine bay. After being recovered by the RAC, the diagnosis is not good. The aux. belt has failed, taken out the cambelt which in turn has trashed the head. Repair cost is £3400 which includes a refurb head.

When trying to explain this to the missus she asked the sensible question, “why does a small belt failing cause so much damage? Why isn’t this prevented from happening by a cover or something?”.

I couldn’t answer this!!

Someone was making something a while ago but don't know what happened, all went quiet.
My aux belt snapped withing a few month of getting my V70, luckily no damage. Had a new belt on and after a few weeks it started squealing. New tensioner and belt done by volvo for free. Just under 12 months later squealing again and it turned out to be the alternator bearing was faulty and caused the belt to stretch. Had a new alternator and belt (tensioner OK according to Volvo as not even 12 months old) and no problems since.

My Auxiliary belt snapped at 100481 miles.
Assuming it was changed at 50000, how on earth do they program them to accurately break bang on the change mileage :rolleyes:

Fortunately, it was replaced without any damage

Good info. about the alternator.

There is a guard manufactured for the aux. belt.

Available on eBay: - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-2-4...-/183973169152

£125 is a lot of money for something that looks like I made it in my shed but I guess if I'd had one fitted I'd be £3275 better off!

My Dad's V70 P3 has had the aux belt, a/c belt, tensioner & timing belt replaced fairly recently (Volvo parts). As he was parked up in a supermarket car park about a month ago, he started the vehicle after shopping as you do & heard a very loud bang - He turned the car off immediately. The RAC came & brought the vehicle to a Volvo specialist who confirmed that the water pump had packed in & the force of it de-railed the timing belt slightly & the timing cover was bent also. Luckily, it didn't do any damage to the engine or head! The timing belt was hanging on by a few teeth according to the mechanic & its a good job my Dad didn't attempt to drive the car home after the noise he heard, or it was game over really.

The water pump on inspection wasn't a genuine Volvo part - The bearing had seized & it basically fell apart under load. So another timing belt, a new timing belt cover & a genuine Volvo water pump was fitted. Its running fine now, thank goodness! When getting the belts etc replaced in the first instance before this happened, we were told that the genuine Volvo water pumps don't give much trouble & there's no need to change them. It turns out that was statement was true because it was an aftermarket/cheaper part that failed. Its a pity their belts aren't as strong, although Volvo probably don't manufacture them anyway come to think of it? Anyway, I thought I'd share that story with you :)

Have you gone ahead with the repair then? That cover is expensive like you say, but its worth its weight in gold so to speak. So this cover protects the aux belts getting chewed up with the timing? Will it do the same for the timing belt de-railing & possibly getting caught with the aux belts, or does the timing cover offer protection in that instance?

who put the water pump on?
you were very lucky !

I have been trying to press this point on here for years , the volvo pumps don't give little trouble they give NO trouble , and that is very unwise to use any other pump . many perfectly good volvo water pumps have been changed for no reason based on old wives tales and hearsay .
Let that be a practical lesson which proves that my 45 years volvo experience at the highest professional level actually means something on this forum !

The previous owner must have done it at some stage. Its making me wonder about my S80 though! I've had the timing belt, aux belts & tensioner replaced & didn't bother with the water pump because I was told not to by the independent Volvo garage that done the work. How do I know if mine has a genuine Volvo water pump though? Does it have some kind of visible code or Volvo stamp on it as an example? Presumably, there's no easy way to see it either without having to take the wheel arch lining etc off.

Yes the genuine pump has VOLVO on it as a raised part of the casting .. the vast majority still have volvo water pumps on except those who have been badly advised to change them going by their experience on VW etc ... They don't realise that volvo do things differently.

Thanks for clarifying that. I'll have a look at mine & double check that the previous owner of my car didn't put an aftermarket water pump on it & change it to an original ASAP if they did!

I've done the cambelt on 3 D5's now and never had cause to change the waterpump as they were still serviceable.

When I changed the belt on my last xc70 it had over 160k miles on the clock and the belt was changed for the second time in the cars life.

Again the waterpump showed no discernible wear at this mileage and was left in situ.

This car now has over 200k on it and no problems.:teeth_smile: