Can somebody help me please? I think the accessory belt popped out!

[audisheri]

First off, I drive an Audi 2003 A4 3.0 Quatro. It has just a little over 50K on the odometer, and I believe I just missed the factory warranty. I was driving on the freeway for about 20 minutes when I noticed a rattling noise under the hood. Next comes the red battery light indicator on, and the car started to drive funny. The steering wheel was becoming extremely hard to turn. It felt to me like the car died out, but the rpm was still up. But anyhow, I pulled over and had my friend come rescue me, because it was getting scary. My friend was able to drive the car, but I can see he was breaking a sweat trying to turn the steering wheel. The good news was I made it home safe. My friend then looked under the hood to see that in front of the engine, the belt was off. He was able to pull the belt upwards, but was unable to get it off of the car. It turns out the the belt had NOT snapped, but had slipped out of the pulley instead. Now how can this happen? I've been driving the car for the past half year, and never had a problem. Now is this a simple repair job where the belt just needs to be placed back onto the pulley, or is it that something broke leading to this situation? Am I looking to spend a lot of money? I did do some research earlier, and saw somebody with a similar situation. It turned out that a seal broke or something like that, and that it was recommended that he change the timing belt as well. Now would this be a similar situation like mine? I'm worried that I'll have to spend an arm and a leg to fix this problem. Please, any suggestions or comments would be highly appreciated. I've also read that the timing belt doesn't need to be replaced until 105K. Is that right? Thanks guys..

Sheri

[Trotsky]

Sounds like a bad serpertine belt tensioner. The timing belt doesn't need to be replaced this early and has nothing to do with the problem you're having.

[audisheri]

Originally Posted by Trotsky

Sounds like a bad serpertine belt tensioner. The timing belt doesn't need to be replaced this early and has nothing to do with the problem you're having.

That's great! At least I know I don't have to spend the extra money now, so that's good. God, it really sucks though. I just bought this car like 4 in a half months ago, and it had only 45,000 miles. I really didn't expect this to happen so soon. And it's not like I don't keep up with the maintanance; it just hasn't been time to yet. Now if I have a bad tensioner, does that mean I have to replace the tensioner? I'm pretty sure the tensioner is expensive right? Thanks again for the help though.

You know, I'm also wondering if there's a recall on this particular tensioner part. I just don't think it should fail at such low milege, and especially right after the warranty period expires!

[T-sport]

To be honest i havent seen that problem reported at all on the B6 so in my opinion its not a common fault.

It sounds like you just a bit unlucky, have you tried contacting Audi about it they might help you out if your car is fully up to date with a full Audi service record ...

Worth a try!!

[audisheri]

Well, first off I wanted to say thanks guys. You guys are all so very sweet. Here's the sad part, the problem is located at the lower right hand side. I believe it's called the AC condensor. That's what the 76 gas station mechanic said, but he refuses to do the repair work. The belt is definitely not broken, and as a matter fact, the it's in very good condition. By looking at the AC condensor, the pulley looks warped. I stuck my hands in there to touch it, and there is some play. It not a simple problem where you can just replace the pulley part that holds the belt in place, but instead the entire AC condensor needs to be replaced. It's definitely broken though. Now how hard is it to replace the AC condensor, and what's the cost for a rebuilt one. These parts don't often go out right? How can this happen to a car with just a little over 50,000 miles? Does anyone know if there's a recall on this part? Also, my car just hit a little over 50,000, and it's a 2003 a4 3.0 quatro. Does anyone know if the warranty still exists?