VW A5: 2.0L TDI Serpentine Belt Tensioner removal 

There IS an easier way!!! I hope that by writing this, I may help out someone else who need to do this Ridiculous amount of work for changing a tensioner.. I just changed mine as part of a timing belt replacement.. I almost skipped this tensioner after watching this (and other guides) Then I decided to spent 10 minuts, threading my arm "blindfolded" in between all the pipe-work with a 13mm socket and a few extensions. and I freaking found it!! At the right angle, and a good flash-light, you can actually see the "blind hole" WITHOUT removing any of the pipes, tubes or fans! It is a TIGHT fit! and I guess you need fairly small arms to accomplish this! but I managed to change this tensioner in less than 30 min!! Good luck!

I Had to perform this task on our 2010 TDI Jetta. Had it not been for you posting this video I would have been completely lost. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Yours is the only videos showing this particular task. Thanks a bunch, Stan.

So,after determining that my idler pulley was bad, I searched and found this excellent video on how to replace it. Being limited on time had having some body joint issues, I became a little dismayed and subsequently somewhat inebriated about the level of effort required. However, the next day, accompanied by my strapping son who is just a tad lazier than I, we dove in. First, I demonstrated to him how to verify the issue by downloading a strobe light app to my trusty cheapass Moto G5+ and had him watch the belt and pulley do their dances (they weren't totally gone, as in the video). We had removed the passenger wheel, lower fender liner, and belly pan. I figured that we could find out something easier than the significant disassembly that the good Thomas EXOVCDS illustrated. And, we were right. If you look up towards the where the retaining bolt might be found, with your sightline from the oil filter, you'll see a hole. You will need a light on your forehead or in your teeth. Assemble a 3/8" drive 13mm deep wall (I only use 6-points), a universal, a 12" or 18" extension, and a ratchet or electric impact. With a little finesse and by the grace of God, you can sneak the socket into the hole you'll see, and get the bolt loose. It takes patience and probably took us the same amount of time that Thomas EXOVCDS took by disassembling all that he did, but we have less to put back together. HTH, dubbers.

Thanks for this great video. I would not have tackled this job without first watching your video. I went ahead and removed the three bolts holding the A/C compressor before removing the upper intake tube at 6:30. Greatly simplified the extraction of the intake tube, and provided additional access to the tensioner mounting bolt. Thanks again for the video.

Very nice video! Thought it would be not easy, I changed my mind on doing it myself

Damn, that seems like a lot of work for the tensioner. The A4 seems a hell of a lot easier. Keep up the great videos.

Thank you so much man i couldnt find anything good for my 2013 jetta tdi even with this video it was aggravating but i got it

thanks for this vid, it helped out a ton

Thanks so much. I guess my car is an outlier if damage is more extensive. Fixing the serpentine belt, tensioner, timing belt and related damage is probably more than I want to spend since Audi will buy back the car this fall for emissions violation.

Boy, i am almost there now. I have the hard pipe removed, have fished the extension and 13mm socket into where i finally saw the hole, but for whatever reason i cannot seem to line up the socket with the bolt, really frustrating and the mosquitoes are killing me now that its dark...

I don't remember replacing any thing on a mk5 Commonrail engine the only thing would be the Belt when the timing belt was due the ones that are prone to fail is the 5 cylinder cars there is 2 belts and a bucket of rollers :)

Hi Thomas Great video and very informative. At what mileage interval would you recommend replacing the drive belt and tensioner on this model? Thank you.

Awesome!

Egad . Encountered a few issues. Does anyone know what direction the small air hose goes(water). Does it point downward? It attaches next to the air filter near the drivers headlight. Also my vent hose below the big intake 4:20 is not curved correctly and seems constricted. Is there a replacement part for it ?. Got it is not plastic so strange. Lastly no need to take tires out. Had to remove the fan shroud through top. Maneuver the upper hose and viola...

Hi Thomas At 5.19 mins into video you are removing a T30 torx screw ( between crank pulley and aircon compressor). Appreciate if you could tell me what this screw is securing?

Good video, first time, long time. Are these tensioners in the 2.5 A5s?

What's your opinion on these engines? What is the highest mileage you've seen on one of them and how was it performing? I had 09 Jetta with this 2.0TDI and DSG until 4 months ago, when I sold it for 11 000. Mine was 134 000 when I sold it and it was running awesome. But this is low mileage for diesel, so I"m wondering how these engines perform at 350 000+kms. I've been through 2 exhaust flapper valved. They would seize up pretty good and get stuck in closed/open position. My timing belt was never changed. I bought myself a kit to do it from amazon, but never actually used it, because I sold the car. Interesting, though, on the kit it says 2.0TDI PD, which I take it means Pumpe-Duse. And that is not my engine... but who knows if that was a mistake.

Just watched another video where someone snaked a wobble extension up in there and accessed the bolt without removing anything but the alternator. And that was to get a better view

Thomas I just need to replace the serpentine belt on 2011 tiguan, how much of this can I skip? Is there another tool that will relieve the tension because I don't have that specialty tool.

is it the same procedure for a vw cc 2.0t gas engine?

Hi Thomas! Do you know how much i have to remove to change the serpentine belt tensioner on a passat b7 2.0 tdi cr 2012? Any special tools? thanks in advance/Jens

any idea if this is close to what needs to be done on a VW Caddy 2012? or have you done it one and got any tips?

Does the new belt tensioner bolt on or just sit in there?

Is there not enough room to remove the charge pipe without pulling the fan shroud? I do these all the time on the TSI cars and those can be done without pulling the fan. It’s a little tight but they come right out.

What if the tensioner is good but the pulley is bad. Can you just replace the pulley? If so, how?

I have a 2011 Audi A3 TDI Premium with ~71,000 miles that had a serpentine belt and tensioner failure this weekend. The engine cut out completely, then the glow plug and battery light came on as I coasted to the shoulder of the highway. The Audi repair estimate states, " NOTED SERPENTINE BELT AND TENSIONER HAVE COME APART. CHECKED VALVE TIMING, FOUND TIMING OFF. ADVISED REPLACE TIMING BELT ROLLERS TENSIONER AND WATER PUMP TO START. CYLINDER HEAD DAMAGE POSSIBLE." Questions: 1) Is it common for this failure to happen at ~71,000 miles?; 2) Are the serpentine belt and timing belt close enough to need to replace both?; 3) I'm being advised that the likelihood of cylinder head damage is high. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this dilemma. I'm pretty upset about this failure on a car that's just 5 years old.

Great video....but you do not need to remove all that crap. I did the job in 25 minutes without spilling a drop of coolant. Just removed the hard downpipe blocking access to the 13mm tensioner bolt. I dropped the pipe down...disconnected the sensor after it was partially dropped and took the bolt out with a 13mm and 3" extension. No need to remove the bolt...leave your socket on it and reinstall. One pipe, two hose clamps and one sensor clip along with the lower right splash guard removal for side access.

Dammmm so much work for a serpentine belt and a small belt tensioner thank goodness I have a Mazda 3 sooooo much easier and in half the time.Crazy German cars.

You shuld have writen VW A5: 2.0L TDI Serpentine Belt Tensioner removal(whats left of it) :)

After realizing the job I have ahead of me, this will be my last vw product..

German engineering is so overkill sometimes. All this for 1.3 labor hours? Bullshit!

WTF! Seriously?