Hi all could do with a little advice please before I start my task,I need to do the fan belt tensioner on my a4 b7 i do believe I have to take the front of the car to do this as there is no room to get a spanner in there any does and donts before I start be much appreciated cheers leon

 

If you are going to remove the front or lock carrier into service position DO the timing belt while your in there unless you have had it done recently and I believe you need to drain the coolant to do the above so make sure you have some to replace...Cheers..

 

There is no fan belt on a B7.

All fans are electronically driven.

There is no timing belt tensioner either for a 2.0, There is a roller the sets tension.
There is no timing belt on a 3.2 depending on which engine you are refering to.
If you wish to replace the serpetine belt tensioner you will need a 13mm wrench and remove the belly pan. (easy to run the belt from the bottom)

 

I assume he was talking about the accessory belt tensioner but just called it wrong, and yes there is a timing belt tensioner, as you said that eccentric roller is the tensioner, any car with a timing belt needs a tensioner otherwise your belt would be, well you know

 

Its the only engine that Audi has made that doesn't use a hydraulic tensioner for the timing belt.

Which is awesome because it makes replace simple. I can do a 2.0 timing belt w/ water pump in about 1 hour.

 

Holy Batman!! you must have octopus arms, I don't think I could do it that fast if I tried, I mean I don't aim for speed when I am working on my car but I don't think I could if I even tried..lol..Any tips?

 

Well using a lift makes a world of difference. And i know which tool and extension to use for every bolt. The biggest time save is you don't have to remove the bumper or put the lock carrier into service position. There is enough room to do it on the car. But you have to do half from on top and half from the bottom. If you remove the bumper and set the carrier you can do it all from the top but will set you back a few hours.

 

Ahhh now I see....Now it makes sense, a lift is something I thought I would want to put in my next house/garage seeing as I do pretty much all the work on my cars as it makes pretty much every job easier from oil changes to timing belts Thanks