Timing belt/auxiliary belt issue prevention? D5 euro 3

[JGTTDI]

Hi everyone,

I am sure that this has been discussed in the past as many have no doubt thought about this very question.

My question is, is there any way of preventing the auxiliary belt failing and taking out the timing belt? I know the most obvious answer is just renew all associated parts with genuine Volvo parts with the hopes that they will last a good while without any issues. But I heard there was a metal bracket for sale that could stop the belt from taking the timing belt out. Is this a possibility or have any of you tried this?

Thanks in advance Jonathan.

[cheshired5]

There was a guy selling them but I've not seen any posts about them for a while.

As you've hinted at, if you adhere to the belt and pulleys change schedule and use genuine parts, this is an almost unheard of failure in fact I've never heard of an example of failure that couldn't be traced back to a quality or change schedule issue so I'd spend my money there.

Personally, I've owned 4 D5s totalling a million miles and it's a non issue.

[Brendan W]

Never heard of the plate idea. I reckon at best it's a band aid to stop people worrying, at worst it will provoke what it said it could prevent. Volvo are not stupid.
The weakest link on the aux belt is/was the tensioner and idler pulleys. I hear very little about it derailing timing belts these days. I have seen different design tensioners on our car so maybe the thing is sorted.
Alternator clutch/overrun pulleys can stress the belt as well.
Best prevention is a common sense approach. Is the aux belt running smooth and silent at all times. Change when due and give serious consideration to replacing the tensioner on the aux belt when doing timing belt.