You make it look so easy with a lift but doing this on the floor with a jack is a PITA! That circular black plastic spacer that sits on the end by the bolt is a nightmare to line up if it falls off. Took me 2 hours of cursing to finish this job on a 2009 Tiguan. Great video explanation I followed it to the end.
On my 09 CCTA Passat, I couldn't reach my way to the back bolt. The bracket was too much of a PITA. I ended up taking off the alternator. Much more space to work. Was only moving the tensioner out to access the last lower timing cover bolt that was partially stripped. I'm pushing 200k miles and wonder if I should swap this out while I've got an engine support bar....hmmm. Do the alternators/accessories fail often on these engines?
At 200k with factory alternator might be a good idea, they actually don’t really have high failure rates at all on these models but once you get up there around 200 it can happen, the brushes that are part of the voltage regulator just wear out
@@EuropeanAutoRepair very true...just hard to decide when to cost control. I need to fully remove the tensioner, since I took off the pulley - for proper bolt torque I'm thinking. Then will order and swap the tensioner when it arrives. Definetely don't want the more expensive alternator to fail with the pulley. Happens too much
@@EuropeanAutoRepair I was able to get just the pulley replaced but the squeak remains...it takes time to wind up and seems less when accelerating but no difference when turning (power steering ruled out) no difference between AC or not...and no power problems...
