First up thanks guys for the advice
The spanner is 100% definitely a 30mm. If a spanner can be "bad ass", I now have a bad ass spanner (the Halfords one). It's a monster. Very satisfying to use!
I managed to do the check and get everything fitted back together in 15mins (plus one bleeding knuckle and several layers of finger skin removed). 5mins to get it off and do the check, 10mins to get it back together.
There's some neat engineering under there, but why on earth they couldn't allow another few mm or for what I'm assuming is the throttle pot' to be easily removable I don't know
And the result was...not seized. Woohoo!
With the bad ass spanner the tensioner could be moved clockwise easily. Retaining bolt didn't move at all, belt slackened (bowed to the left). Let it go and the belt went tight again (straight on the left). All felt pretty smooth despite the bracket and nut etc looking a bit manky. Could sense the tensioner compressing.
The hex nut doesn't need to move very far to slacken the belt.
This is, guaranteed, the prelude to me posting on here again within a month with a FUBAR'd engine. But until then quite happy -£500 saved which is unusual for my cars thus far this year!
Presumably it's worth checking these annually?
(Incidentally...2010 car with 82k miles on it).
The spanner is 100% definitely a 30mm. If a spanner can be "bad ass", I now have a bad ass spanner (the Halfords one). It's a monster. Very satisfying to use!
I managed to do the check and get everything fitted back together in 15mins (plus one bleeding knuckle and several layers of finger skin removed). 5mins to get it off and do the check, 10mins to get it back together.
There's some neat engineering under there, but why on earth they couldn't allow another few mm or for what I'm assuming is the throttle pot' to be easily removable I don't know
And the result was...not seized. Woohoo!
With the bad ass spanner the tensioner could be moved clockwise easily. Retaining bolt didn't move at all, belt slackened (bowed to the left). Let it go and the belt went tight again (straight on the left). All felt pretty smooth despite the bracket and nut etc looking a bit manky. Could sense the tensioner compressing.
The hex nut doesn't need to move very far to slacken the belt.
This is, guaranteed, the prelude to me posting on here again within a month with a FUBAR'd engine. But until then quite happy -£500 saved which is unusual for my cars thus far this year!
Presumably it's worth checking these annually?
(Incidentally...2010 car with 82k miles on it).