Drive belt tensioner, window relay & spotlight wiring!

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fishsponge

fishsponge

New Member
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Location
Cambridgeshire, UK
A few things... my ancilliary/serpentine/drive belt tensioner squeaks like crazy. I hate it. The previous owner bought it brand new (supposedly), but it squeaks when it's cold, hot, wet, dry, whatever!

So... i phoned my local land rover place (not main dealer) and was quoted £58 *plus* VAT for the part alone. Is that a little expensive??

Secondly, onto the rear electric windows that don't work. I know the switches are fine, and I know the fuse is fine, so next thing to check is the relay. Can I swap the front electric window relay for the rear electric window relay to test? If it does turn out to be the relay, they want £12.00 + VAT for a new one.

I'd have thought a tensioner would have cost a tenner and relay around a quid!

Finally, my spotlights need rewiring. The wiring is correct, but there is no fuse inline and the wires are too thin & getting hot and melting. I'm crap with electrics. Seriously. So i've considered paying someone else to do it, but at £40 per hour + VAT i'm sure i'd rather spend all day on it myself. Anyone fancy helping out in return for something less than £40 per hour?? :D
 
fishsponge said:
Secondly, onto the rear electric windows that don't work. I know the switches are fine, and I know the fuse is fine, so next thing to check is the relay. Can I swap the front electric window relay for the rear electric window relay to test? If it does turn out to be the relay, they want £12.00 + VAT for a new one.

I'd have thought a tensioner would have cost a tenner and relay around a quid!
Click to expand...

Rear Windows Fix

fishsponge said:
Finally, my spotlights need rewiring. The wiring is correct, but there is no fuse inline and the wires are too thin & getting hot and melting. I'm crap with electrics. Seriously. So i've considered paying someone else to do it, but at £40 per hour + VAT i'm sure i'd rather spend all day on it myself. Anyone fancy helping out in return for something less than £40 per hour?? :D
Click to expand...

Spotlight Relay
Swap your existing wiring for something like this
 
fishsponge said:
A few things... my ancilliary/serpentine/drive belt tensioner squeaks like crazy. I hate it. The previous owner bought it brand new (supposedly), but it squeaks when it's cold, hot, wet, dry, whatever!

So... i phoned my local land rover place (not main dealer) and was quoted £58 *plus* VAT for the part alone. Is that a little expensive??

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f38/300tdi-squeeling-belt-penny-trick-64595.html

Secondly, onto the rear electric windows that don't work. I know the switches are fine, and I know the fuse is fine, so next thing to check is the relay. Can I swap the front electric window relay for the rear electric window relay to test? If it does turn out to be the relay, they want £12.00 + VAT for a new one.

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f38/discovery-range-rover-rear-windows-46097.html

I'd have thought a tensioner would have cost a tenner and relay around a quid!

Finally, my spotlights need rewiring. The wiring is correct, but there is no fuse inline and the wires are too thin & getting hot and melting. I'm crap with electrics. Seriously. So i've considered paying someone else to do it, but at £40 per hour + VAT i'm sure i'd rather spend all day on it myself. Anyone fancy helping out in return for something less than £40 per hour?? :D
Click to expand...


Took me all of 5 minutes to find the above using that very helpful SEARCH feature at the top of the page.

Looks like someone else has sorted your spotlights - how much should we charge for this info?
 
TENSIONER

OK, so penny trick is definitely a possibility... doesn't that just change the axis on which the tensioner rotates, though? ...and how the hell can every single brand new tensioner (Land Rover part or otherwise) be made out of true?? ...and if it's the engine that's out of true, why are people still making tensioners that don't correct it???

Either way... i'll try the penny trick. What are the consequences of this belt coming off, by the way? Presumably it's a call to the breakdown service, but no damage done, right?

WINDOWS

Thanks for the window links - i'll try to do that this weekend if it's not too cold!

SPOTLIGHTS

Thanks for the link to the spotlight wiring loom, but i have 6 spotlights and require a switch (which the loom says it doesn't have) so I can use them when the engine & ignition are off (for short periods, obviously!). I'm therefore stumped. I can wire a bulb to a battery (like we did in school), but anything more and i'm useless! I won't be rewiring the spotlight until after Christmas anyway, so I think i'll give this some more thought...
 
fishsponge said:
SPOTLIGHTS

Thanks for the link to the spotlight wiring loom, but i have 6 spotlights and require a switch (which the loom says it doesn't have) so I can use them when the engine & ignition are off (for short periods, obviously!). I'm therefore stumped. I can wire a bulb to a battery (like we did in school), but anything more and i'm useless! I won't be rewiring the spotlight until after Christmas anyway, so I think i'll give this some more thought...
Click to expand...

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f16/existing-additional-spotlight-wiring-loom-121932.html

or

Loom + switch although I'm sure you'll need a larger relay if you've got 6 spots.
 
fishsponge said:
TENSIONER

OK, so penny trick is definitely a possibility... doesn't that just change the axis on which the tensioner rotates, though? ...and how the hell can every single brand new tensioner (Land Rover part or otherwise) be made out of true?? ...and if it's the engine that's out of true, why are people still making tensioners that don't correct it???

Either way... i'll try the penny trick. What are the consequences of this belt coming off, by the way? Presumably it's a call to the breakdown service, but no damage done, right?
Click to expand...

I was sceptical too but the sh1t works:D

I think it may be the part that the tensioners clamp onto that is crap not the actual tensioners. Put a steel straightedge across the tensioner pulley and you will likely see that its not square to the other pulleys but ****ed, this is what squeeks.

If the belt comes off then no generating and no cooling so not good
 
Well this is going well... not!

The instructions say this:

1. remove belt
2. back of the single stud holding in the tensioner
3. put a penny in the 9 o'clock position
4. tighten back up, put belt back on.

Well, i'm struggling to remove the belt so far. It's too damn tight to just pull off, so I figured i'd slacked the nut on the tensioner, but i have a 14mm socket and a 16mm socket, and apparently i need a 15mm socket! Oh, and the adjustable won't fit in the gap i have because all the pipes & aircon thing are in the way.

I figured this would be a 5 minute job, but seemingly not...
 
right... job done!

didn't remove the belt though. i slackened off the nut 10 turns or so, levered the tensioner out 3 or 4mm with a screwdriver gently, held the penny in place with a pair of pliers and did the nut back up.

sound ok??
 
Here's a few pictures of the end result...
 

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right... the electric windows work now too! :)

Not too good at soldering, but it appears to work, so today I'm happy.
 

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So... is there any problem with having done the penny trick (as photographed above) without removing the belt first?

It still drives OK, but is there something I should know?? If not, why do the instructions say "remove the belt first"?
 
fishsponge said:
Well this is going well... not!

Well, i'm struggling to remove the belt so far. It's too damn tight to just pull off,

I figured this would be a 5 minute job, but seemingly not...
Click to expand...

A long 15mm spanner releases the belt tension which enables you to slip the belt off. Do the same and slip the belt on and release the automatic tensioner. Maybe 30 seconds to release the belt and 2 minutes to route the belt and refit on the tensioner. Hopefully you made a note of the route before removing.
Putting the penny in position cannot be more than 2 minutes. It is a 5 minute job when you do it next time. First time maybe a bit longer as with many things. Having a long spanner makes the job easy.
 
terryds said:
A long 15mm spanner releases the belt tension which enables you to slip the belt off. Do the same and slip the belt on and release the automatic tensioner. Maybe 30 seconds to release the belt and 2 minutes to route the belt and refit on the tensioner. Hopefully you made a note of the route before removing.
Putting the penny in position cannot be more than 2 minutes. It is a 5 minute job when you do it next time. First time maybe a bit longer as with many things. Having a long spanner makes the job easy.
Click to expand...

thanks for the advice, terryds, but I already did it with the belt still on! :)

Part of my problem is that all my spanners, sockets etc... are Imperial, not metric! The adjustable did the job though :)
 
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