Alternator belt 'fell off'

[RS6-T28RPH]

noticed a burning rubber smell the other day an now have the red battery light on the dash, upon inspection the alternator belt has 'fallen off' and is currently sat on the under tray. As belts have a tendency to stay put in general use, something has gone pear shaped.

About two years ago had to do the pulley (part 11) which was not in stock anywhere for Audi, ended up getting it from Lambo Leicester as its the same as a Gallardo and the service guy said it would be 24 hours as its coming direct from the lambo warehouse in Italy and true to his word it arrived the next day!

This time round, its definitely going to need a belt and hopefully its the roller tensioner (part 7) and not the alternator as the belt and tensioner are 48 hours from TPS att £45 and £195 respectively) whereas the alternator is at least 7 days

Car is getting pulled apart later this afternoon so will get some snaps that hopefully show what happened, but just a heads up that if you start to see you idle revs creep up a couple hundred rpm you could be close to having no alternator, not ideal at this time of year when it gets dark early! Might be just another set of parts to add to the list of things that could go wrong at higher mileage!

[Jim Haseltine]

if you start to see you idle revs creep up a couple hundred rpm you could be close to having no alternator

When the alternator output is low the engine revs rise to try to compensate. Dunno if other manufacturers do the same thing but the idle control in Audi ECUs has been set to do that for years.
Suspect the tensioner pulley has seized and the ribbed belt has burned through the ribs.

[bam_bam]

These things have a half-life just like the C5 alternators, except the C6 ones are monsters, aren't they water-cooled?
Looking forward to pics.

[Farravi]

@RS6-T28RPH - Could you share notes of how you will remedy this of course pictures would paint a thousand words so sharing your knowledge would help others in a similar eventuality as you in the future.


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[RS6-T28RPH]

New parts arrived from TPS today, fortunately the job can be done without taking the front off. Just undertray and move the oil cooler out the way but as a result no photos.

As Jim suspected, the tensioner had seized and the ribbed belt had been converted into a knackered pallet strap.

The job from start to finish was around an hour, have copies of the TPS invoice so will check part numbers and upload them but they are both predictably 07L part numbers