So I was driving to work today and lost power to the accessories -- power steering, alternator, AC. Was able to make it home 1/4 mile with brute force steering.

I thought the serpentine belt snapped, but upon inspection, the belt was intact. There's a loose silver pulley that's about 3"-4" across that has disconnected. Fortunately, the radiator fans weren't running when this happened.

Is the pulley the alternator pulley? It has splines but fell onto the plastic underbody pan so I can't take a pic.

Looks like I have to put the car in the service position just to determine what's going on.

I'm wondering if the pulley retaining nut on the alternator came loose after 140k miles.

1998.5 Audi A4 B5 2.8 AHA

 

Look at the belt routing for your car and figure out where the missing pulley is. No need to put it in service position to check that, though you maaaaay have to to fix it.

 

If you can get a picture of the pulley we can (probably) tell you which one it is. The alternator pulley is kind of small. I'm thinking either the power steering pulley or the viscous fan pulley. Power steering pulley is the one at the top center, and the viscous fan pulley is on the drivers side.

but yeah....pics

 

Thanks. I was rushing to work and didn't get a good look. I'll pull the engine beauty cover off for better access.

 

Chances are it's the serpentine tensioner. Fixed one two weeks ago (the bearing assembly fails and it comes off its mount), and two local guys had the same failure in the recent past. Playing the odds that I've seen, I'd count on that. I've never seen an accessory pulley come off.

 

Found a nice pic on ECS Tuning that may help.

 

ImTheDevil was right -- it's the serpentine tensioner, fortunately.

In my semi-panic this a.m. (not to mention semi-frozen state at -2F degrees at 7am), I swore there were splines on the loose pulley. It was just rubber residue from the belt that had melted onto the metal pulley.

Ordering the serpentine belt and tensioner kit from Blauparts right now...

 

So I received the new serpentine belt and tensioner today from blauparts. I'm trying to remove the electric radiator fan to create more space, but it won't come out.

From what I understand, there is a single retaining screw for the fan, then you rotate it clockwise (if you are standing in front of the bumper facing the windshield) until it detaches?

Seems like it's snagging on something or there is another screw somewhere that I can see?

 

Aren't you putting your car into service position? I thought that was mandatory for the timing belt kit replacement.

 

For timing you'd want the room. Just doing serpentine belt and tensioner doesn't require service position although it helps. If you're trying to remove the fan, wrap the old serpentine belt around the fan pulley, have a friend clamp it down with channelock pliers, and use a big wrench on the large nut behind the pulley. It's a counterthreaded nut (righty-loosey lefty-tighty) and it's a pain in the ***, personally my least favorite step in doing front-end engine service. Keep at it and it'll come free but you're gonna have to earn it. Some deep creep or kroil can help a lot.