Hi, I recently (Sunday actually) addressed the 'screeming belt' problem in my Copen. After a hunt around I found the alternator lurking under the engine. The adjuster is 12mm and the holding bolt 14mm both reasonably easy to undo but then the belt tension is lost. I tried various methods of tensioning without success and even contemplated asking my wife to help but thats not a good idea but to be fair she can pump brakes very well after 50 years of marriage. So what I did was to take a crowbar and threading it from the TOP located the alternator body and pulled back. It worked, but obviously I had to release the crowbar to pop back under the car to tighten the two bolts thus losing tension. So to maintain the tension I forced a piece of timber between the crowbar and the firewall and then tightened the bolts. So far, goodbye screeming. How do you know the battery isn't being charged? Ned
Ned, Best way is to get a small plug in voltage meter for the cigarette lighter socket. They’ll show the state of the battery charge before you start the engine (should be around 12v) and then the output of the alternator when the engine is running (around 13.5v). If you have starting issues and the voltage levels are correct, it’ll likely be time for a new battery. Also, a good check to confirm the squeal has gone is to start the engine from cold and open the roof. It puts a decent load on the alternator.
I checked it with a multimeter at the battery end. No increase in voltage when the engine is started.
With the engine running the terminal voltage should rise to around 14V otherwise it wouldnt charge the battery, Ned
I finally got myself into replacing the alternator belt on my 1.3 LHD Copen. The old belt was really starting to show signs of wear and tear, and I had a replacement belt already in stock. How did it go? At first the space around the belt looked very tight, I could not fit my hand down the engine bay from the above to grasp the lower parts of the belt. I was a bit worried. I read from this thread a tip about removing the inside wheel arch and that did the trick. Steps taken: 1. Jacked up the car and set it on towers. 2. Removed the right front wheel. 3. Removed the plastic inside wheel arch. 4. The belt tensioner is now accessible from an opening, the bigger 14 mm idler pulley bolt can be easily loosened through it. 5. The space is very tight and I could not fit a normal spanner in there to loosen the 8 mm adjustment screw. I had to go buy a very short 8 mm ratchet ring spanner with an angled ring. That did the trick and I could now loosen the tensioner all the way and detach the screw for the belt to be able to escape. Luckily the adjustment screw was not very tight. 6. Pulled the old belt away. Even this was a bit tricky and took some time as the space between the pulleys and the chassis is narrower than the belt, and the belt jammed in there and I had to pry and push it out from below the car. Good think I lifted the car so high I could crawl under it. 7. Started routing the new belt from the top. First I routed it around the power steering pump and AC compressor pulleys and worked from there over the water pump and to the alternator. The alternator and crankshaft pulleys could be accessed from below, the tensioner from the said opening. I still had to rely a bit on pure luck and a flexible plastic stick to to get the belt where it needed to go as my hand simply could not fit anywhere near the water pump pulley area. It took me about 50 minutes to route the belt, and get it seated properly over all the five pulleys. 8. Hand-tightened the 14 mm idler pulley bolt. 9. Tightened the 8 mm adjustment screw almost to the original position. The belt felt snug and tight. 10. Finally tightened the 14 mm bolt to about 40 Nm. 11. Started the engine to check it worked, rechecked the tension, before putting the wheel arch and wheel back. 12. The best step: test drive! The whole process took about 2 hours altogether.
It’s a pig of a job isn’t it ! How much skin was left on your fingers at the end ? @CoppedEnd - I missed your reply back in 2018 ! I always checked across the terminals too but an auto electrician told me I should be checking across the +ve and an earth point on the body/engine. As it turns out, he was the guy that correctly diagnosed I had a battery rather than alternator problem.
I have one in my garage to fit. I got it off ebay over a year a go but it's for the 1.3, not the 0.7. I guess a different size.
someone put the part numbers for a 3 belts on here. So grateful for that whoever done it. I gave the number to car parts, they told me I need a 737 belt, but a 735 or 740 will do the job. Delivering to mechanic so fingers crossed on the alternative
Yes 3 belts. The garage said they only needed to replace 2. Now it's in the garage to see if the clutch has gone. They said it could be the gear box. I'm waiting for them to call me back with the outcome. They said if it was the clutch cable then I would have problems with all gears, and not just 5th. It's difficult to get in all gears, but 5th I can't get into. Fingers crossed on the result.
Hopefully they’ve checked and replaced the gearbox oil. The problem I had was getting the right size plug and if that’s common, garages will reuse the plug and crush gasket with fairly predictable results.
