Technical Changing serpentine belt

Currently reading:
Technical Changing serpentine belt

lowaaa

Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2020
Messages
97
Points
84
Has anyone got any good pointers / guides / photos / a video of changing the Changing serpentine belt on a fiat punto 1.2 8v ? I've looked around and can't find anything on Youtube, saw a guide on this forum but I don't think it was exactly what I'm looking for.

My belt's constantly squealing upon start up (sprayed it with water and it went away)

Is there a specific tool I need to buy ? Or could I just user a wrench/spanner like some other cars require?

thanks.
 
Do you have a serpentine snake like belt on your 8V car? It would have air conditioning to be serpentine. Otherwise it is just going between two pulleys?

The 8v alternator is usually hinged and has an adjustable slot as part of the alternator. you would just loosen the alternator while levering the alternator to tighten the belt and then tighten the belt.

With air conditioning there is a tensioning pulley held on a strong spring .
 
Do you have a serpentine snake like belt on your 8V car? It would have air conditioning to be serpentine. Otherwise it is just going between two pulleys?

The 8v alternator is usually hinged and has an adjustable slot as part of the alternator. you would just loosen the alternator while levering the alternator to tighten the belt and then tighten the belt.

With air conditioning there is a tensioning pulley held on a strong spring .

Hi, no air conditioning. Saw a video on a fiat punto grande just now, and as you described it seems to be the same, I'll have a go on that, would it be untightening (but not taking out) all bolts or just the adjustable one? Thanks!
 
Do you have a serpentine snake like belt on your 8V car? It would have air conditioning to be serpentine. Otherwise it is just going between two pulleys?

The 8v alternator is usually hinged and has an adjustable slot as part of the alternator. you would just loosen the alternator while levering the alternator to tighten the belt and then tighten the belt.

With air conditioning there is a tensioning pulley held on a strong spring .

Hi, so came across an issue. Got the alternator loose and got the belt off, however, there's no way to get the belt out at all. There's a very tiny gap and it doesn't let the belt get through the gap. As you can see below. Do I have to unbolt that bottom one a bit too? to get it through the gap or is there another way?

thanks.

gap.jpg
 
cleargap.PNG

Here's a clearer picture from the outside of how the gap is too tiny to fit through :/
 
You dont need to take the belt off. You just loosen the top bolt that goes thru the slot on the alternator that you can see in the picture and probably you can just lever the alternator away from the engine to tighten the belt and retighten the bolt.

The belts been squeaking a lot, i put some water on it and it went away. After today when I had to put the old one back on, I made it tighter but the belt just squealed more and now it's just constantly squealing until i put water on it.

I think I need to replace that belt completely.
 
The belts been squeaking a lot, i put some water on it and it went away. After today when I had to put the old one back on, I made it tighter but the belt just squealed more and now it's just constantly squealing until i put water on it.

I think I need to replace that belt completely.

Is it the belt that is making the noise or the alternator?
 
Has to be the belt, as I spray water on it and the noise goes away, I even spray away from the alternator and it goes away briefly. butt it comes back. I think when I refit it as I couldn't completely take the old one out, I might of not aligned it back into place, so the squeaking definitely got worse.

Regardless though, the squeaking was there before..
 
View attachment 217690

Here's a clearer picture from the outside of how the gap is too tiny to fit through :/

That sensor you've highlighted can be removed. As far as I know it has to be in order to slip a new belt over. There is a single bolt that attaches the bracket of the sensor to the engine block. You will need to get your head under it to see it. Hopefully the diagram here helps.

Once you've got the bolt undone and removed, you need to pull the sensor out of the metal bracket that its supported by. It will be tough. Spray some WD40 or similar lubricant in there and grab it gently with a pair of pliers and wiggle slowly (pulling towards the front of the car). It will eventually come free. Once you've made enough space near the belt you might have better lucky pushing it out instead of pulling but be careful! You might damage the sensor if you go prodding it with a screw driver or whatever. EDIT: On further thought - save yourself time and reduce the risk of damaging it by only pulling it out a tiny bit (enough to make the gap big enough to slip the belt through).

Swap the belt over.

Stick the senor back in (clean up the metal bracket first to make the insertion much easier).

Do the bolt up on the underside of the sensor that attaches the plastic of the sensor to the metal engine block.

Tension your new belt. Haynes manual says you could tension it so that it has 5 mm movement each way (up and down) when you press on the belt firmly in the middle of it (middle point between the alternator and the auxiliary drive pulley on the engine).

Extra advice: jacking the car up on the side with the alternator and removing the wheel and wheel arch plastic lining can massively increase your access in this job. Makes it A LOT easier. Worth the extra faffing about, in my opinion.
 

Attachments

  • crank.png
    crank.png
    69.7 KB · Views: 20
Last edited:
Ok.. its a primitive engine

That sensor just runs with an 'airgap' clearance ;)

Two things I would like to point out :)

I just remove that pulley..its those 3 bolts..and will just fall off

IF that belt is so old and tired.. what state is the timing belt in ?

If you remove that pulley: you are 40% towards a timing belt change ;)

Useful photos:

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda-guides/437184-panda-8-valve-cambelt-change-gars4.html
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, means a lot.

What quaffle suggested worked. I didn't have to pull on the plastic bit though it just slid out after unbolting. New belt is fitted in and now no more squeaking :D

In regards to varesecrazy, the whole timing belt worries me, the whole making sure it's all set up properly in the engine, not sure if I'll manage to do that properly, don't want to mess anything up. What's a sign of a bad timing belt?
judderbar it was just the plastic bit which was in the way unfortunately :(
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, means a lot.

What quaffle suggested worked. I didn't have to pull on the plastic bit though it just slid out after unbolting. New belt is fitted in and now no more squeaking :D
Good job. Mine had a lot of gunk that had congealed there that essentially glued it in place the first time I took it out.

In regards to varesecrazy, the whole timing belt worries me, the whole making sure it's all set up properly in the engine, not sure if I'll manage to do that properly, don't want to mess anything up. What's a sign of a bad timing belt?
The 1.2 L 8 valve is a "safe" engine. You can run the timing belt until it breaks/snaps and there will be no damage to your engine. This is not the case with interference engines, but the 8 valve is a non-interference engine. Swapping the timing belt on the 8 valve engine is not super difficult. I would recommend picking up a Haynes guide for the Fiat Punto as that will walk you through the steps (with photos) and they are not very expensive books.
 
Good job. Mine had a lot of gunk that had congealed there that essentially glued it in place the first time I took it out.


The 1.2 L 8 valve is a "safe" engine. You can run the timing belt until it breaks/snaps and there will be no damage to your engine. This is not the case with interference engines, but the 8 valve is a non-interference engine. Swapping the timing belt on the 8 valve engine is not super difficult. I would recommend picking up a Haynes guide for the Fiat Punto as that will walk you through the steps (with photos) and they are not very expensive books.

I'll give this a go and I'll definitely try getting my hands on a Haynes guide. Do you know which one specifically? There's quite a few, I did see a 2003-2007 black book one, I presume it would be that one? There's like 3 if I remember I saw correctly.

Thank you!
 
The earlier 1.2 (and, I think all 1.1?) 8 valves are non interference until around 2011 when they adopted a VVT cam pulley. These engines are so similar almost any of the Haynes manuals featuring this engine will guide you but I can strongly recommend our own Andy Monty's definitive guide in the Grande Punto Guides section: https://www.fiatforum.com/grande-punto-guides/237966-1-2-8v-evo-2-engine-cam-belt-replacement.html

Replacing timing belts is a popular forum topic and there are many posts you could read - use the search bar.

I've damaged crank sensors in the past trying to remove them so my preference, as recommended by Veresecrazy (Charlie) above, when replacing an aux (fan) belt would be to whip the 3 pulley bolts out and temporarily remove the crank pulley. I've never had a problem getting one of these off but don't forget to line up the wee "pip" on the cam belt sprocket with the wee hole in the pulley when you reinstall it.

The cam belt is definitely one of the simpler ones to do in the "grand order" of things. Probably getting the engine mounting dismantled from the front of the engine is the most awkward part - and maybe slackening the cam sprocket retaining bolt if you've got the later engine with the "free running" cam pulley. If you're up for rebuilding brakes, replacing suspension components, and doing your own servicing etc It's the sort of job you should be able to do just fine. Take it slowly and don't worry because, being non interference, all you'll end up with is a poor or non-runner if you get it wrong.

PS. Buying the appropriate Haynes manual is to be highly recommended
 
Last edited:
From memory Jock..

Before the 2004 panda the engine mount didnt get in the way

Probably a great candidate for the 'stanley knife' method..

Now you mention it Charlie, our Felicity 1992 Panda Parade (the one in my avatar picture) was an absolute "doddle". No problem with mounts and keyed sprockets. Simples! No air con either so alternator access was easy too. I prefer the later engine's spring loaded tensioner but she had a fixed one so a bit of care had to be taken with tensioning a new belt and I always went back and re-checked/re-tensioned after a couple of thousand miles.
 
I'll give this a go and I'll definitely try getting my hands on a Haynes guide. Do you know which one specifically? There's quite a few, I did see a 2003-2007 black book one, I presume it would be that one? There's like 3 if I remember I saw correctly.

Thank you!

You are looking for the one with the black cover. It covers the 1.2 L 8 valve and the 1.2 L 16 valve engine.

Amazon store link (check the used link as it seems to be under £5!)

eBay "Buy it now" store link

NOTE to future readers: The links above may eventually die but a search on common sites like Amazon and eBay will allow you to find a copy.
 

Attachments

  • s-l1600.jpg
    s-l1600.jpg
    113 KB · Views: 27
This post contains affiliate links which may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
This post contains affiliate links which may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Back
Top