1.9tdi (130) power steering pump & alternator belt tensioner problems.......

Hi all, hopefully someone on here will e able to give me a bit of advice, I am at my wits end.......

for about 6 months I have thought that my power steering pump was on its way out, making a grumbling noise on and off at tick over revs, making a god awful noise when locking the steering over again at low revs.
About 4 weeks ago, the tensioner gave up and threw the belt up, snapping the belt. I now think the noise I thought was the pump was the tensioner deteriorating over time.
I managed to get a used pump and tensioner (complete assy) so fitted that with the new belt only to find the tensioner was also on its way out. A week later I put a whole new complete assy tensioner on (non original). A few days later it started to make a racket again. To look at the tensioner wheel when the car is ticking over it is jumping about. I therefore thought it was a dodgy tensioner and told the supplier who sent me a replacement f.o.c.
I have today put the new tensioner (full assy) on and the piston locked and wouldn't spring back so took it all off again. When I twisted the piston it released. I made a decision then to put the original tensioner wheel with the 2 week old piston and put it all back together and it now sounds worse than ever.
I am now planning on replacing the original power steering pump tomorrow and putting the new tensioner assy on it which is the one that seemed to lock up today.
I am at witts end with this now and am trying to sell the car too. People are put off at the racket it is making which is not what I want.
Any help, advise, past experiences etc more than welcome :)

Thanks in advance.

Are you sure that it is not simply the alternator pulley which needs to be replaced?
I think that is the usual suspect for the symptoms you describe.

Thanks for the quick reply, I have had a nosey at otherposts and seen the alternator pulley mentioned as it has a clutch in it ?? The pulley spins freely and no play, are there any tell tale signs to say if it is the alternator ?
Im presuming its an easy job to swap the alternator pulleys ??
Thanks again.

Take hold of the alternator pulley and twist it sharply with a flick of the wrist keeping hold of the pulley. You should see the armatures inside the alternator continue to turn for a while after your wrist and therefore the pulley stops.....if the armatures only turn in direct correspondence to the distance you turned the pulley then the clutch has failed and you need a new pulley.

Swapping it tbh is fairly simple, but usually requires the alternator to be removed. It needs a special (23?) splined drive to remove it best done with a air impact driver. I have taken both of my alternators to a garage with the new pulley and they have swapped them over for £10 a time.

The alternator has a one way bearing in it, if you turn your steering to full lock and you hear a horrible noise get someone to hold it there so you can see the belt you notice it bouncing around a lot. that horrible noise is bearing in the pulley and the belt trying to slip.

Hi All,

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies. I have taken the belt off and removed the alternator today following this advice. The alternator only spins as far as I turn the pulley in both directions and doesn't slip as it should. I got an alternator off a friend who has broke a bora but the pulleys are different meaning my belt would be forced forwards about 15mm to go over this alternator pulley so that is not an option. This alternator does have a working clutch so I was able to determine the difference.
Off to my local alternator specialist with mine in the morning, hopefully he will be able to just swap the pulley over for a new one.
Thanks guys, fingers are crossed it is all ok once put back together

All sounds positive then, that should be the end of the problem :)

Well,
Thanks for the replies guys, all sorted today after a few issues. Ended up snapping the long bolt that holds the tensioner to the cast section that holds alternator etc so had to drain the power steering down and take that lump off to get the snapped bolt out and replace with a new one.
Got it all back together and sounds sweet as a nut, 159K on it and sounds better than the day I bought it at just over 100K. Happy camper over here, thanks again people.

A good result :)