Fanbelt

[Luggy]

Hi there been a member for acouple of weeks now but this is my first post.

Yesterday i was driving along when my power steering went and my battery light came on i though nothing of it as i dont know too much about cars anyway i drove about 8 - 10 miles then when i got to where i was going opened my bonnet to find out i was missing a fanbelt, as its new year not many places are open but my grandad has some v shaped belts if they fit. so i have three questions

1) what shaped belt is it i need
2) how much would a new belt be
3) have i done any serious damage to my car

oh its a 1998 1.4 polo

thanks alot and happy new year

[polo-sib]

Best place would be a VW spares place. Doubt you did any damage but I'm not a mechanic, I found these slack quite abit so check it once in a while and tighten it real good when you refit it. lucky its not the cambelt. Also I'm pretty sure there will be two sizes, one will be a belt for the non-power steering model (which goes over from the engine pulley to the alternator directly), the other one will be the power steering one (this goes, engine pulley, alternator and power steering pump).

I imagine the belt is no more than £5 considering the cambelt is around that mark. Might be worthwhile checking your cambelt as well and see if that needs replacing as you don't want that to go missing, which gets done every 60,000 miles if the vehicle got serviced.

As for sizes, i got this from vagcat:

ribbed v-belt / for models with power steering
21,18X1070MM /

ribbed v-belt / for models with air conditioner and power steering
21,18X1125MM /

Hope this helps

[Luggy]

thanks mate yeh driving it last night without power steering made me feel sorry for people without it lol i had never used a car with no power steering before

thanks for that though mate.

[polo-sib]

At least you got home driving a tank of a mk4 safely

[kyle1b1]

my belt for a non-power steering cost me £6

easy to fit, and they are a multi-v belt