Does anyone have pictures or specific instructions on changing this belt? Sounds like "preventitive" maintenance to me.

Thanks.

Once you get the fan assembly out, it's obvious.

Phil has the belt for about $8.

OK, thanks. How does the fan assembly come out ? :)

You'll also have the opportunity to clean off the condensor when you do this too. I always used to do this at the dealership I worked at. Imagine that, a tech taking 5 minutes to do an owner a favor, guess I was just a dinosaur.
I mixed up dish soap and water. Wet down the condensor once the fan is removed, then spray it with the soapy water and wait a couple minutes, then blast it off with a garden hose, water running off the condensor will be pretty black.
Gilly

See reply #15.

Matt, thanks very much - - I apologize for over-looking it. How much time would you permit for this job?

I'm going to order two belts for our E300d cars. I'll try to grab some fotos.


Can somebody tell me which W210 models use this design? Is it widespread?

Thx.

It should take about a half hour to R&R each fan assembly (more for the first, less for the second). It's fairly easy.

I'm not sure which models use it.

OK, thanks.

I strongly recommend this. I replaced my belt a few months ago and I took off a few more bolts to allow me to seperate the condensor from the radiator. I only seperated the two a few inches which allowed me to blow out the debris and hose off the radiator and condensor.

I think it was a feature on 96 and 97 gassers and all years of the diesel.

Gilly

Hey another other observation: I did change a few fan motors, but by far the most common failure was the fan control module.
Gilly

Good info. Thanks. :)

Matt, I followed your instructions and swapped my belt this evening. Glad I did - - my belt has been running upside down :( There's a groove burned in the plastic shroud. I foto-documented the entire session and will post shortly.

News at 11!

Loads o' leaves and interesting bugs:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7964/dirtyradjt5.jpg

Clean radiator, dirty mind :wacko:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3194/cleanradzd1.jpg

Two fresh belts for the diesels:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1563/newbeltsvr6.jpg


Matt, I found one very minor error in your directions. I'd like to use your write-up in my picture post with your permission. Please advise.


Thx.

Feel free. Thanks for photographing this for the next guy.

Matt, thanks. I appreciate it and so will plenty of other folks who pay attention to basic maintenance. ;)