hi, i have a problem with my 1997 vw golf gti vr6. i took it to a mechanic about 2 weeks ago for a sepentine belt change. everythings fine for a week then i pull into my friends driveway and my car starts smoking so i pop my hood and my serpentine belt burned all the way off?????? i get it towed to a mechanic and he tells me my belt had burned off and then tells me ,my ac compresor had locked up ... wtf its a brand new belt how does it just burn off and then mess my car up. now he doesent want to pay for anything to be fixed when hes the one that oviosly put the belt on wrong........help i need peoples openion on what happend so i can show him he messed it up ..so he will have to fix it ...:confused:

 

Welcome to the forum.

Well if the AC compressor has locked up as he says then it will destroy the sepentine belt due to friction. Now the belt of off can you turn the compressor pulley easily by hand? There is an electric clutch in the pulley that locks the compressor to the pulley when you switch the AC on.

Do you use the AC?

Have you ever had the AC serviced\recharged?

As part of the service they add oil to lubricate the compressor internal parts if there is no oil it will lock up.

 

yes i do use my ac ...
i just bought the car just over a month ago so i dont realy know if the ac was serviced ac was working awsome ...my mechanic mentiond something about a pully being messed up

he was saying their is no way to run the belt without buying a brand new compresor ..do u know if that is tru,,cause i realy dont need ac i just need my car running good again??

 

When the belt decided to burn itself out didn't you hear a squealing noise?

You need to establish what caused it to lock up was it the electric clutch in the pulley or the compressor? The pulley should act like another pulley until the AC is switched on then it couples the pulley to the compressor.

If the compressor is at fault and has to be changed then you need to have the AC recharged. VW ask about £70 to recharge a system so you would have to Google this option.

If you Google these compressor problems it does happen.

 

thank you so much for the help the mechanic found out that it was his fault that it messed up

 

I'm glad he's owned up to it.