2.5dt Serpentine belt and associated issues.

Hi guys. First real problem with the P38 reared its ugly head this morning. just left work to go home, 4-5 minutes up the road and i lost my power steering and alternator warning light came on. Obvious thought was serpentine belt had snapped. Drove car 200 yards further up the road and tried to manouver into parking bay. Difficult with 255's and no PAS. just making final manouvre and engine died??? and wouldn't restart!!! Fortunately car was near as damn it parked.
Lifted the bonnet. Indeed serpentine belt had shredded. Tensioner and pulleys all look good. So questions are as follows.

1/ What has to come out to replace belt? I'm thinking rad cowl, Fan and intercooler? Anything else?
Do I need to replace anything else apart from the belt?
2/ Is the fan coupling 32mm? Hope so as I have a 32mm fan spanner.(Somewhere!?!?!?)
3/ This is the one that's puzzling me. Why would the engine die? it wouldn't restart. it was only running for 3 - 5 minutes without the belt on more or less idle and hadn't even reached full operating temp, so it's not an overheating issue. Odd!

Hopefully someone can help.

No volts, ECU doesn't work. You can get the belt on without moving anything but it's difficult. You need to look at why the belt shredded, check the crank pully.

Viscous fan and shroud off makes things easier. Aircon belt will have to come off and bottom pulley on tensioner. Fan slackens clockwise looking from front of engine i do believe it is indeed 32 mm.

wammers said:

Viscous fan and shroud off makes things easier. Aircon belt will have to come off and bottom pulley on tensioner. Fan slackens clockwise looking from front of engine i do believe it is indeed 32 mm.

Click to expand...

Forgot about the aircon belt

Lucky it died although as you say you were parked ! no belt =no waterpump=overheat in about 5 minutes! =fecked headgasket! = not a happy bunny

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check all the pulleys and tensioner, throw a new belt on at the weekend and trust to luck. Seems to be the Land Rover way.

If the pulleys are spinning freely, check alternator one too and water pump pulley .
Chances are is just an old belt , bad maintenance.

Hopefully it is just an old belt. I'll replace the air con belt as well. Only had it three weeks so looking good for the future.

You can replace both belts with all in place.
1- remove the aircon belt
2- place the main belt around the fan and move it into position (the tricky part)
3- lift the tensioner
4- place the main belt on it´s pulleys according to RAVE
5- release tensioner
6- fit new aircon belt

Changing the belt is a bit of a fiddle but not too hard once you figure it out. Have a look at my experiences here http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/how-change-2-5-diesel-serpentine-belt-185926.html
Make sure you fit a good quality belt, I replaced the one that came on mine; the 'new' one only lasted a few months before cracking and I've refitted the original - it's still there after 60k miles and still looks OK.

Speedex750 said:

Changing the belt is a bit of a fiddle but not too hard once you figure it out. Have a look at my experiences here http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/how-change-2-5-diesel-serpentine-belt-185926.html
Make sure you fit a good quality belt, I replaced the one that came on mine; the 'new' one only lasted a few months before cracking and I've refitted the original - it's still there after 60k miles and still looks OK.

Click to expand...

Got to change that! 60k miles on a belt and then when you are stranded by the side of the road it´s the P38´s that are unreliable...
I´ve fitted contact (tyre brand) ones and they cost about 15€ top.

Moreirinha said:

Got to change that! 60k miles on a belt and then when you are stranded by the side of the road it´s the P38´s that are unreliable...
I´ve fitted contact (tyre brand) ones and they cost about 15€ top.

Click to expand...

OK!

It sounds old now I read it myself, and I don't know how many miles it had done before I got the car. It does look OK though with no cracks in the ribs. My experience with the other 'new' one has detered me but maybe I should get a good named new one this time and perhaps a look at the alternator wouldn't go amiss before the bad weather cuts in.

Conscience tweaked, thank you.

yep, change them...
and then keep your old ones with a known tool set so you can quickly change on the go.

Do the Data fan mode and this is then so easy..

I allways keep the old parts just in case they might need to go back in for another few km´s...

That´s another plus point in removing the viscous fan, not having to unbolt the water pipes for every job on the engine, but a bit too hot here in Portugal in the summer...

Here is my experience, might help.


http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/crank-pulley-damper-229853.html

donp38 said:

yep, change them...
and then keep your old ones with a known tool set so you can quickly change on the go.

Do the Data fan mode and this is then so easy..

Click to expand...

The fan mod is an excellent idea!
Ive got both (viscose and data fan) the electric fan is set to cut in a little above "normal" as a back up plus ive run a led from the thermostat to the dash so I can see when something not quite right!
to date its only come on twice! once when spanking it up a 2mile hill with the twin axle tin tent, and again when the cap sprang a leak and lost pressure
Both times I would confidently say it saved me from a overheat