VR6 serpentine belt - idler pulley.

[craigowl 0]

Inspected this yesterday at 101k miles after reading useful article on knowledge base.

Not noisy, though.

After removing pulley, as an experiment, I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes to shrink the metal and allow ingress of some oil.

On removal, pulley did not spin so freely - possibly due to grease hardening? or shrinkage?

 

Anyway, dribbled some Slick50/oil mixture onto both sides of horizontally laid pulley and very gently prodded plastic seal with small screwdriver. Two or three air bubbles appeared through the oil, so I took it that at least a little of it had penetrated into the bearing. On spinning pulley it was more noticeably quiet - quite silent in fact.

Mght prolong life of bearing - not really sure.

Will keep forum posted of any developments/problems.

Iain

[dr_mat 0]

Good news is VW dropped the price of replacements to a slightly less ridiculous £60 ish..

[craigowl 0]

Thanks Doktor. :D The £150 ish former price is one of the reasons I attempted some preventative action.