[XC70Virgin]

Hi before fitting a new belt a few things:

I had what sounds like your issue a few months back. Whilst I did have a leak in the condenser fron corossion pitting, the compressor was also leaking on the rear gasket. It took me a while to figure it out but I also had a broken belt and given that it was fairly new it was a bit odd. What the issue boiled down to was that the pully bearing was shot meaning that the pulley was dragging even without the clutch, causing it all to get hot to the point where the belt got soft and eventually shredded itself.

Big issue here was that the belt bits ended up in the timing case which had potential to cause a serious ball of trouble.

So, it as was probably cost effective to do, I got a new condenser and compressor from Air Con Parts (cheap and not brilliant quality) but it will do the job and was easier than trying to get the pulley off and all that nonsense and trying to fix the leaking gasket.

My suggestion to you is to doube check your pulley bearing for play and general wear and tear. You can watch it running without the belt and see if its dragging or acting up before you fit the new belt. Also, check about for the remains of the old belt. They're good quality and don't break for no reason. Wife's '09 XC60, exactly same age as my 70, is in perfect order with double the mileage. I think my compressor developed a leak because of the heat and/or constant running as a result of the knackered bearing meaning it never stopped operating.

Swapping the compressor is quite easy from below and will actually make the belt fitting easier as it can be fitted to the pulley "loose" and then bolting the compressor back in place. I say easier and not easy! You'll need to get the gas recovered properly too and the correct amount of oil added as it will not come with the new compressor. Get a good auto a/c fitter to do this and not KF.

Hope that helps.