Serpentine belt tensioner - help!

[500E]

Hello all - gave a local garage my car to change the fan belt and the car has returned with the new fan belt totally loose and the tensioner seems to be broken . MB part, 8 rib and confirmed looks same as old with same p/n. Can't drive the car as belt too loose and no way of tightening it.

Does the tensioner break on the m119 or one of those items which is very unlikely to fail? Tried to tighten the bolt below the tensioner itself either way with no success, no tension just floppy, even if I hold tension then tighten, no success. Anything I'm doing wrong? Car is 1992 and was absolutely perfect before it went in (bar cracks in the old belt of course)






Earliest the garage can get out to see the car is Monday which leaves me without the 500e over the weekend.

Cheers

Bill

 

[ray_hennig]

Hello all - gave a local garage my car to change the fan belt and the car has returned with the new fan belt totally loose and the tensioner seems to be broken .

Garage should be ashamed. Yes, you'll be without the car for the weekend.

Is this garage an MB specialist? If not, find one. What you have there seems delinquent in the extreme. Don't pay the bill. Or is it too late?

RayH

 

[500E]

Garage should be ashamed. Yes, you'll be without the car for the weekend.

Is this garage an MB specialist? If not, find one. What you have there seems delinquent in the extreme. Don't pay the bill. Or is it too late?

RayH

Paid up and left but it's ok as the owner has known my old man for the last 25 years and should sort me money wise - still annoyed though and p=ssed off that they broke the tensioner - maybe it was on the way out anyway? Knew I shouldn't have let them loose on my 500E which normally goes to Terry at WG Ltd (v good btw). Been silly busy with work and travelling recently so didn't have the time to leave it with them.

 

[500E]

Also they should never have let the car leave with the belt in that condition...deffo won't be going back there again!

 

[stwat]

Looks like they tried to loosen the tensioner rod without first loosening the tensioner bolt at the front. The casting at the bottom of the rod breaks. A new rod and casting is fairly cheap from MB. But they'll be paying for that in any case.

Very shoddy workmanship. They must have had the aprentice do it on his first day. Well I would hope so. Whoever did it, knew they had done it and said nothing, letting you leave with a potentially engine damaging problem.
No water pump running=potential blown head gaskets.

I'm only a self taught DIY mechanic, I did exactly the same, I knew instantly what I had done wrong and broken.

 

[500E]

Looks like they tried to loosen the tensioner rod without first loosening the tensioner bolt at the front. The casting at the bottom of the rod breaks. A new rod and casting is fairly cheap from MB. But they'll be paying for that in any case.

Very shoddy workmanship. They must have had the aprentice do it on his first day. Well I would hope so. Whoever did it, knew they had done it and said nothing, letting you leave with a potentially engine damaging problem.
No water pump running=potential blown head gaskets.

I'm only a self taught DIY mechanic, I did exactly the same, I knew instantly what I had done wrong and broken.

Cheers for the response bud and I think you might be right. I will be speaking to them about it on Monday. The guys over on the 500 forum seem to think the 92 500e tensioner is weak anyways and will pretty much break if disturbed. Search of posts seem to confirm it but I think if they tried to force the tensioner (without loosening the bolt) they would have broken it.

Either way it looks like new tensioner time - hopefully it's not silly money from MB. Anything else recommended to change at the same time?

Cheers

Bill

 

[stwat]

There's a small hydraulic strut on the tensioner that helps to stop the belt flapping around. It's a good idea to have this checked as the bushes at each end can wear out and cause a horrible rattle when they fail.

 

[ray_hennig]

There's a small hydraulic strut on the tensioner that helps to stop the belt flapping around. It's a good idea to have this checked as the bushes at each end can wear out and cause a horrible rattle when they fail.

Yes, we changed the strut at the same time as the tensioner. For the price, it's silly not to.

And don't be tempted by cheap replacements like Febi; MB only.

RayH

 

[jaymanek]

Looks like they tried to loosen the tensioner rod without first loosening the tensioner bolt at the front. The casting at the bottom of the rod breaks. A new rod and casting is fairly cheap from MB. But they'll be paying for that in any case.

Very shoddy workmanship. They must have had the aprentice do it on his first day. Well I would hope so. Whoever did it, knew they had done it and said nothing, letting you leave with a potentially engine damaging problem.
No water pump running=potential blown head gaskets.

I'm only a self taught DIY mechanic, I did exactly the same, I knew instantly what I had done wrong and broken.

I mentioned this last night on the 500E forum... i did the exact same thing soon after I bought my 500E... How annoyed was I.. It was a sunday afternoon... had to leave the car at work.. I had planned a trip in it that afternoon... Wont make that mistake ever again.