ORKA64.2

Are any of the pulleys on the serpentine belt supposed to wobble at all? Mine has a slight wobble post service I didn't recall it having before. Thanks.

georgeb944

No wobble allowed. Somebody put it back together wrong.

ORKA64.2

I was told that it's normal, it's not much of a wobble, just a little. It's the center pulley that can be loosened to remove the belt. The service was a timing belt, I even took it back and was told it's all good & none of the pulleys were removed to do the service.

georgeb944

On a 2.7T, I believe that you have to remove the serp tensioner to do the timing belt. Of course, if I were a lazy technician, I would say that they all do that, and hope you go away. Since it's a german car, it's not designed to wobble. It's not a Fiat, after all.

ORKA64.2

Thanks George, at first I was told "no pulleys were removed to do the service," then I was told "just the pulley in the center was removed partially, but that it's supposed to wobble." I just wanted to clarify, because he also stated that all audis have that wobble on that particular pulley & I could have sworn it did not wobble before.

georgeb944

I would challenge him to show you another 2.7T that had a wobble in the pulley from the factory. Send him to me and I will show you three 2.7T engines that do not have that wobble.

ORKA64.2

Thanks for the info, I'll take it to another shop and see what they say.

OGBULLYLOCDAWG

What exactly did you have replaced?

The center pulley you're talking about is likely the serpentine belt tensioner. I guess it's possible that if they removed it, they didn't line the little nub on the back with the mounting point on the back (image on the right):


You can see the empty space where it mounts in photo (different engine, but just to give you the idea of how the tensioners are secured):

OR

It's possible that it just went bad. The tensioners are pretty sturdy, so outside of intentionally beating on it with a hammer, I'm not sure how they would have damaged the pulley on it.


It all sounds sketchy as hell. Didn't they say that they didn't remove any pulleys, or just the specific part that you questioned them on?

My concern would be that the timing belt was actually replaced and done properly.

acarney

I wonder if he's talking about the power steering pulley. I attached mine correctly and torqued down all three of those little hex bolts evenly but the whole thing has a TINY amount of give to it. Maybe not even a full mm and everything is tight, but if I tug on it a little I can feel it give just a tiny bit. Not sure if that's how everything is built but the accessory belt seems fine and it was tightened down correctly and everything was aligned and mounted right...

OGBULLYLOCDAWG

Now I'm wondering that too, lol.