Check Your Drive Belts.

[craggle]

I was doing a service on my iQ3 a few weeks ago and while I was in there I noticed the drive belt to the alternator looked a bit worse for wear.

I spoke to my local main dealer and got both the air conditioning compressor drive belt and the alternator drive belt for only £30 and last weekend I had a go at fitting them.

Not a difficult job really, jack the car up, remove the right hand wheel, remove the plastic panel from the back of the wheel arch and work from there. Once the belts are off remember to clean the pulleys and make sure they are not damaged.

The damage to the belt was interesting though. The air con belt was fine really but as it has to be removed before the alternator belt can be removed it made sense to just change them both.

What had caused the problems with the alternator belt was small stones in the pulley grooves and embedded in the belt itself. The belts are very low on the engine and sit just a few inches behind the front wheel so I guess some debris getting into the belt isn't a surprise but it's well worth opening the bonnet occasionally and taking a glance at them to see what they look like.

A stone stuck in the belt can be clearly seen in one of the photos below and a hole right through the belt made by a stone can be seen in another image.

The part numbers on the bags are for my iQ3 but there is a different belts for different models so check with the dealer first if you plan to order some.

Craig.

[MarkyPancake]

I loved my old iQ, but one of the things I didn't like is that they didn't put covers in place to stop the tyres from flinging things into the engine bay, especially when the wheels are at full lock.

[craggle]

It is fair to say the plastic guards that are in place are minimal at best. :)

Craig.

[Soeley]

Mine is booked in for MOT and 40,000 mile service on the 7th of Jan. I will give the belts a visual before it goes in ;)

[tarquin]

I hav changed mine twice in 3years. First ones completely shredded the second set went hard and squeeled

David

[craggle]

I'm assuming these are the original belts from when the car was built back in 2010 so they did quite well and I must be around 40k miles too now.
I'll be closely watching them from now on. :)

Craig.

[Guest]

Did this by any chance cause a burning rubber smell?

[craggle]

No, Nothing really gave the game away apart from me looking at the belts during my yearly service.

I think that belt would have gone on many more miles yet but then it may have snapped or fallen off the pulleys without warning and that would be when you are hundreds of miles away from help. :)

Craig.

[Guest]

Ah, it's good that you spotted it then! I went to check the belts on mine and they seem okay. Fingered crossed nothing happens. ^_^

[stujanes]

Help please Craig...

I wonder could you help me, my IQ3 shed a belt last night and I need to replace both like you..

I have done as you advised but only able to get to top bolt on alternator and I am guessing you have to loosen lower ?

Also on air con belt there is a black adjustor type thing in the middle on the bottom what does that do.

I am OK with the spanners but cant work this out mate... Are you able to help explain the process in more detail ?

Thank you

Stu J

Stu J

[craggle]

Alternator stays where it is, no need to undo any bolts on that.

One of the pulleys is a spring loaded tensioner so you just need to put a long spanner on that one and pull it down so the new belt can be placed over the pulleys.

For the air con belt you loosen the bolt in the centre of the idler pulley and then undo the tensioner screw pulling the pulley away from the belt.

Here are the pages from the manual.

Craig.

[craggle]

Here's the page for setting the tension on the air con belt.

[stujanes]

Hi Craig mega thanks... OK done the alt belt on the tensioner pulley but the air con one seems locked... Was yours really really tight ?

The adjusting bolt on mine if you anticlockwise starts going lose and then gets tight again... Same as going clockwise..?

Sorry to be a pain but just need to loosen the adjusting bolt ?? The main one seems locked on.... HELP

Thanks very much so far ....

Stu James

[craggle]

The bolt in the centre of the adjusting pulley does need loosening first and yes, they are done up pretty tight.

I used a socket set and a number of extensions to get outside the wheel arch where I could attach a decent length breaker bar to it to get it undone. It will go though.

Craig.

[tarquin]

Good work Craig

David

[stujanes]

Guys.... Just a massive "thanks"....Excellent Craig I have done the job both belts.. Just could not work out where the "tensioner" was on the alternator and my a/c belt adjuster nut was as it appears "seized" and I did like you set and put a whole heap of additional 3/8 extension bars and "ping" it went and thankfully my hands were clear..

All good could NOT have done this today without your kind help and diagrammes.. Again gave me the confidence to see the job through, done me spark plugs as well now Craig a few weeks ago. Mine is knocking on for 35K miles and the plugs were good but I have put the platinum tipped NGK's in so they wont need doing for the foreseeable...

I do have a high clutch biting point on mine though and don't know of this is the norm or maybe my clutch was ridden badly in town traffic from previous keepers..?

Anyhow a happy IQ3 owner here ready to hit the road again this weekend thanks to your kind help.

Ta.

Stu J

[tarquin]

Its good you masteted it Stu because mine have been replaced 3 times in 3 years. Totally stone shredded each time. Eas thinking of posdibly fitting a plate under it to deflect them

David

[stujanes]

Hi David it certainly appears based on my limited investigating that there is a problem here that was not thought through 100% from Mr T...

I have not owned my IQ long but they are great little motors and I am surprised how good the overall build quality is... I guess all cars have their quirks and these little gems have em too as we are all finding out as owners.

It would be good if someone smart was able to fabricate a panel to avoid this issue in the future and if so put me down for an order... :-)

All good I am replacing my front discs and pads next week as I am getting really bad "inner disk to pad profiling" and the inside outer rim of the disk is not making contact with the pad material. I guess as I have not owned from new that a previous keeper may have run the pads down to bare metal and it was the inside face that started to damage the surface .....

Anyhow great to know that there are some great people on here that are willing and keen to help out other owners trying to find their way !!

Have a good weekend David, Craig and the IQ massive !

Stu J

[craggle]

Glad you got it sorted Stu, Happy to help where I can.

My clutch is also quite high on the biting point but it seems to vary. Sometimes I drive it and think it's fine and the other day I pulled away and the clutch was slipping until my foot was right at the top of the pedal.

I drove up a very steep (ridiculously steep) hill off the A22 on the way to Warlingham called Succombs hill if you want to look it up on Google maps but it was steep and the clutch held firm all the way up so then I think it's fine.

Strangely enough I was driving up that hill on my to buy a complete clutch kit from someone in Warlingham that I found on eBay so I now have all the bits to do the job, just can't decide if I need too or if I want too..... :)

Craig.

[Mark_P]

Reviving an old thread, the wife mentioned the IQ seemed to be over revving and taking longer to accelerate. Ive just drove the IQ and it certainly was slow on acceleration with high revs until it caught up. Opening up the bonnet I could smell slight burning rubber.  

 

I assume the belt is slipping or pretty worn. Mileage is around 148K.

Reading the thread, it seems easy enough to replace, but is it? I only have the stock jack to raise the car.

[glimp]

14 minutes ago, Mark_P said:

Reviving an old thread, the wife mentioned the IQ seemed to be over revving and taking longer to accelerate. Ive just drove the IQ and it certainly was slow on acceleration with high revs until it caught up. Opening up the bonnet I could smell slight burning rubber.  

 

I assume the belt is slipping or pretty worn. Mileage is around 148K.

Reading the thread, it seems easy enough to replace, but is it? I only have the stock jack to raise the car.

Not the clutch failing, is it? I did a test drive in an IQ before finding the one I bought last month and it displayed the same symptoms as yours (I didn't sniff under the bonnet, so I don't know if there was a smell, because I just told the bloke no thanks). In this car it was definitely the clutch.

For goodness sake don't raise the car on that jack - and always use axle stands & wheel chocks. Never get under a car unless it's 100% safe. I won't go into the details, but I'm lucky not to be dead!!!

[Mark_P]

As far as i can tell, the clutch is fine, the accelerator pedal is not as responsive as it has been in the past 

The clutch smell is certainly different to the smell of rubber burning. 

As for jacking it up, ill avoid it. I'll have to fix it at a garage at the end of the month.

[glimp]

11 hours ago, Mark_P said:

As far as i can tell, the clutch is fine, the accelerator pedal is not as responsive as it has been in the past 

The clutch smell is certainly different to the smell of rubber burning. 

As for jacking it up, ill avoid it. I'll have to fix it at a garage at the end of the month.

Have you tried the old trick of putting the car into 3rd gear, then trying to move off from a standstill? If it stalls, your clutch is okay and if it doesn't, you need to consider the clutch slipping as being a possible cause.

[Mark_P]

The car moved off in 3rd from a standstill. I tried 4th and it stalled as i slowly released then clutch while applying pressure on the accelerator.

[glimp]

2 hours ago, Mark_P said:

The car moved off in 3rd from a standstill. I tried 4th and it stalled as i slowly released then clutch while applying pressure on the accelerator.

Brace yourself for it possibly needing a new clutch.