1996 Golf AAZ Serpentine Question

[booneylander]

Driving along, serpentine belt blew. The tach quit, the oil pressure warning lamp started flashing, and the 'charge' light came on. I pulled over and parked the car out of the way and shut her down.

I got a new belt, and tried to get it on, but no joy.

The V belt is still on and ok, but in trying to look for pictures of the AAZ's pulleys, it looks as though I might have to pull the V belt off to slide the serpentine in?

Does anyone know how I need to do this?

On a related note, why did my oil pressure light come on? Why did the tach cut out? Seems to me the serpentine is just driving the alternator and the A/C pump. so why would it affect the other systems?

Is the oil pump driven off the serpentine?? I can't imagine this would be the case, but then again I've never worked on a vee-dub before. If the serpentine is only driving the alty and A/C, can I at least drive the car somewhere warm and dry, so I can work on it?

Cheers,
Sean

[jack's lack]

Your tach on a diesel in actually sensed by the alternator. Remember there is no distributor like on a gasser. The alternator has a "W" terminal that is used for the tach.
So that one was easy to explain. The charge light is of course a no-brainer.

The oil pump and the vacuum pump are driven by an auxiliary shaft via the timing belt, and if that broke you would have a whole lot more to worry about. I don't know why your oil light would be effected by this maybe just a change in voltage caused the light to go haywire?

What is the V-belt driving? power steering pump? Probably will be easiest to remove it. If it were me I would go ahead and do all the belts including the timing belt if I did not no the history. This is definitely an instance where an ounce of prevention would be worth a pound of cure.

If you are planning on keeping this car and doing any amount of work on it yourself, I would highly recommend investing in a Bentley publishing manual for the car. It will be an invaluable resource.

Good luck with your car Sean

[Vincent Waldon]

The oil pressure warning system pays attention to engine RPM via the W signal off the alternator as well, so the most likely scenerio is that the warning system got confused when the alt spun down.

[akrallysport]

You're still Ok. As the others have mentioned the tach and other sensors are linked to the signal from the alternator. Loosen the PS pump, v-belt, install the serpentine, and re-install/tighten the v-belt and you should be set.

[GEE-BEE]

For 15.00 dollars, Always carry a extra belt or two if you have a v-belt..

GB

Best of luck

[booneylander]

Hey guys, thanks a ton for the insight!

With that in mind I'll probably drive the car someplace warm to work on it. Nothing quite like trying to do a job like this on the side of the road, in winter, in Ottawa...