97' E320 main serpentine belt
 

I am about to change out the serpentine belt on my folk's '97 E320 with auto trans. Is this a DIY job? I took a look at the car this afternoon and seems like there's not much room there, maybe the raditor needs to be taken out before I can get my hands in there. I've changed the timing belt and serpentine belt on my Audi before and that's was a pain. I hope this E320 would be easier, but since I am not familier with this car at all, can someone tell me what's the steps? I've searched several places and came up nothing. Is there any other belts like a/c or p/s I should be changing out while I am in there? thanks

It can be done with everything in place. Remove the fan shroud and then put a socket on the bolt in the middle of the tensioner pulley to rotate the pulley inwards then take the belt off it. Remove the belt and put a new one on using the same method. Make sure you route it right.

Nope. The serpentine belt drives all of the accessory components as well.

And the method Ali Al-Chalabi posted works best, although I had the luxury of doing so while changing out an alternator. The fan was removed to gain clearance, so replacing the belt was a snap.

I will say that I had an illustrated Haynes guide next to me as far as refitting the new belt along the proper pulley path, so draw a diagram before removing the old one.

clockwise to slacken the belt?
counter clockwise to put back the tension?