How to Replace AC Belt 1997-2006 BMW 325Xi

Andy: What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the AC belt on this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

With the trunk open, over on the right side or the passenger side, there should be a cover that goes right here. This vehicle doesn't have one, but you're going to want to remove that cover. Battery is located right here. First thing you're going to do is take a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. Loosen up this nut for the negative terminal. That's loose. Slide off the cable, slide it out of the way. I'm going to take these push pins out right here. I'm just going to use some side cutters. Get this center pin, pull that up and then slide it out.

Be careful not to cut that. Get those out. Grab this piece, slide it out. We're going to disconnect this connector right here. Just push down on that. Slide that out. Then another connector right here. Going to slide the wiring out first, just like that. Then the connector will come out. Just slide that to the side like that. I'm going to take a T25 and a ratchet. Take this screw out right here. I'm just going to use this trim tool from 1AAuto.com. Take this push clip out. Get in there, pull that out. All right, now that is loose.

But what we need to do is we need to take the fan off because the fan has to come out with the shroud as one. What we need to do to take the fan off is we need to disconnect the fan clutch from the engine side. This is attached to one of the pulleys right there. So sometimes these are somewhat difficult to get off. So what we're going to do is use this tool. We actually sell this at 1AAuto.com with many different sizes. This happens to be 32 millimeter. That's going to slide on there and then we slide this on and with a pneumatic air hammer, we're going to give it a couple bumps and it's going to loosen up that nut. And we should be able to get it off.

All right, so now I'm going to take the tool. Now this fan clutch happens to be on there reverse thread, so it's going to seem like you're tightening it, but you're actually loosening it. So we'll go like that. Put our air hammer on there. Make sure you wear hearing protection and eye protection.

All right, so that's loose. Took a little bit of effort but I got it. Now you can slide the tool off. Just move it a little bit. There you go. And you should be able to just spin it off like that. Might need the tool once in a while. Or you could use a wrench that fits, 32 millimeter wrench. All right. Now I'm just going to keep loosening this up. Be careful. You don't want the fan to fall. You don't want it to smash into the radiator, especially if you're going to reuse the radiator. If you're replacing it, it's not a big deal.

So as I get closer to the end, I'll just move the fan and just grab the blade. And there we go. Now I can slide this right up. Just like that. I'm going to take a 16 millimeter socket and a ratchet and I want it on tightening. I'm going to go down here and get on the tensioner right there. You could use the serpentine belt tool as well. And then I can loosen up the belt just like that. That's how it looks from underneath.

With that loosened up, I can grab the belt, slide it off the crank, and then slide it off the AC compressor.

It's going to be a little bit easier to install the belt from underneath, so we're going to do that. I'll just take the belt, slide it over the AC compressor, then slide it over the pulley for the tensioner and then over the crank pulley. Make sure these are all lined up. That's good. Just like that. Make sure those are good. Take a 16 millimeter socket or ratchet, slide it into the tensioner, relieve the pressure, slide this pin out, or if you used a hex key, pull that hex key up. Double check that. It looks like everything's lined up. We're good to go. So these have to go on together. Just slide this in position.

Once you get this close, I'm going to start to tighten up the fan. Now these fan blades are... The fan clutch is reverse thread, so it's almost like you're going to be loosening it.

There's really no easy way to do this. Just do it carefully to get it started. It's a little bit easier. Make sure that fan shroud is in properly. That's good. All right. If you have the ability to torque this nut for the fan, you're going to torque that between 22 and 29 foot-pounds. I don't really have that ability, so I'm just going to put this tool on there and just give it a little tap. That should be good. Right here there's a push pin that's going to go back in here. Slide that in position and lock it down.

And on this side, we're going to put this screw right here. Then I'm going to use a T25 and a electric ratchet. Tighten this down. Just snug. I'll position this wiring harness right here and we'll plug the connector in right here, lock that in place. Take this piece, slide this into the air box, just like that, and there's retainers right here. Take those push pins, lock them down. And we can take the negative side, connect the negative side. Take the same 10 millimeter socket and ratchet, tighten it up. That's good. At this point, if you had that cover, you're going to want to put the cover back where it goes.

Thanks for watching. If you want the parts to do it yourself, check out 1AAuto.com, the place for DIY auto repair.