Owners Forums for Ford and Volkswagen MPVs / SUVs

Hello, my first post, what a great wealth of information here!

 recently there was a screeching noise and then a thud from my 02 alhambra 1.9 which turned out to be the aux belt coming off. the power steering went whilst driving. When i took the engine tray off the bottom i found the clutch plate fro the A/c compressor in it!

i have read a lot of threads here and elsewhere.  I have put the aircon on Econ mode so the a\c compressor is inactive and put a new belt on so that i can drive the car.  it works well enough apart from a slight judder in the steering when i turn the wheel at very low revs (which was not there before).

I checked the tensioner which looks quite new (i have recently bought the car second hand) and have also inspected the alternator pulley (put small screwdriver into alternator and pulley turns one way freely but not the other) and feel that they are not broken....? there is no obvious 'bounce or wobble in the belt when someone else turns the steering wheel.

I intend to replace the a/c compressor clutch plate with a spare part (looks like i can do it in situ).

how do I get rid of the steering judder?  do I change tensioner and alternator pull to be sure they are good, then replace a/c compressor clutch plate....then if its still there i could replace power steering pump (i did check power steering fluid)?


Thank you,
Sam

How has the clutch fell off? is the centre bolt missing or sheared off,are you sure the pump hasn't seized, is there any play/looseness in the pulley

you may find the nut sitting in your under tray,as the nut has come off you may well find that the clutch plate has been osillating on the spline,when mine failed it made a horrendous noise before totally falling aprt,we found everything sitting on the tray,i bought another pump and used the plate and replaced insitu without taking the compressor off.

Did the air con compressor rotate freely by hand despite the clutch being knackered?


I have had similar issues to you with steering vibration 1st time was alternator pulley 2nd time the tensioner was knackered and bouncing around.

Does your vibration gonif you raise engine rpm slightly?

I’m doing this job on Saturday...