How To Replace Engine Serpentine Belt 1998-2005 Volkswagen Beetle

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In this video, I'm going to show you how to remove and reinstall the Serpentine Belt on this 1998 Volkswagen Beetle. This vehicle has the 2.0 liter engine. The only tools you'll need are a pair of locking style pliers and small Allen wrench.

You can see your belt come up around the alternator here and this is your tensioner. You want a small Allen wrench and you can see it goes right where this big square knob is. You can actually insert the Allen wrench low down, right there, and it goes right through. Put the Allen wrench in like that. Take a pair of vise grip, locking jaw pliers. I'm sure the VW dealers have a tool for this, but these work well. You lock them in and push your pliers down. I probably can't quite film this for you but, then you slide the Allen wrench right in. Now, you can see your tensioner's locked in place there. Now, you can just take your belt and, either pull it up off the alternator, or reach down further, and pull it from the A/C compressor. Then right out of there, it comes right up and out.

For your new belt, what you want to do is make a loop like this and the first thing you have to do is get it down and around the crank pulley. I am going to detail putting the belt on, but as you can see from the angle, it's pretty hard to see what I'm doing. I've made up a few diagrams beforehand so you can look at them and then as I talk about what I'm doing, you might be able to better understand. This first diagram is just how the belt should be routed when it's all finished on the pulleys. The first step I just talked about is you make a loop and you can see that arrow. You basically want to push the belt up and around the crank pulley and make sure you have it around that pulley. Once you have it around the crank pulley, you want to put it between the alternator and the tensioner pulleys. Then, in the last step, you should basically have it all in place, and then you just push it in and get it around on the other side of your AC pulley. Again, this is what it's looks like when it's all routed.

You want to take a loop and put it down like that, and hold the belt right up here. Reach down with this hand, and feel for the pulley, and then you try and flip the belt right up and around that pulley. Then, you can put it right between the tensioner and the alternator and then reach way down. Again, you can feel your crank pulley and go down and around the power steering pulley. It's way down at the bottom. Sorry, I'm kind of in your way. Now, you should be all routed except for the middle pulley which is you're A/C compressor. Just reach down in and check that out. Now, what you want to do is you got to pull your belt on to your A/C compressor. The best way to do it is pull up on it like this, so you have some tension on the power steering pulley and then let it down and you move it around the AC pulley. Then, push it on. Now it's all routed. As I look down there, I can see it's not quite on the power steering pulley correctly. So, I just reach down and get it right. Just check and make sure it's on the right grooves on our crank pulley, and it is. Take our vise grips again and lock them on to the tensioner. Pull it down, pull the Allen wrench out and slowly let it back out.

Remove your oil dip stick and put your cover back on. It slides into a little cushion in the back and then presses down on the two on the front. Once you've got that, put your oil dip stick back in and you're all set.

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