I’m trying to replace the serpentine belt on my 2012 S60 T6. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to get the belt around the pulley for the alternator drive shaft (or whatever it’s called) or the large pulley at the back of the engine (not sure what that one is for, sorry). I can’t find any videos/instructions/anything for the T6. Plenty of guides for the T5. What am I doing wrong?

 

is there a drive belt routing diagram under the hood somewhere to verify the correct paths?

 

Sorry, I meant to get back to this sooner. I did figure out how to mount the belt eventually. Since I couldn’t find a guide on how to do this anywhere else online, I figured I should explain how I did it to help save the next person some frustration. Here’s how I did it (sorry I didn’t think to take pictures).

Here are the steps (all bolts are 10mm unless otherwise noted):

1. Remove the battery

2. Remove the battery housing: the bolts holding the housing in place are 8mm. It then unclips from the frame and you can pull it out. Now you are able to access the belt and the tensioner.

3. I found it made the whole process much easier to just cut the old belt off, but if you don’t want to do that, release the tensioner by attaching a 19mm box wrench to the end of it and pulling down. There is a hole on the tensioner where you can place a pin that will hold the tensioner in place as you work on the belt. There was a pin included with the new Continental tensioner that I purchased.

4. Next, remove the AC compressor. You do not have to disconnect the hoses from the compressor. The compressor detaches and flexible hosing allows it to move far enough out of the way to allow you to perform the following steps. There are three bolts securing the compressor down, and then there are another three bolts on the back of the compressor holding a couple of brackets in place. Remove all six bolts. Then, if you follow the tubing down to the left of the compressor, you will see a bracket that is holding the tubes in place by a T25 torx bolt. Remove the bracket. Now you should be able to gently lift the compressor up and forward.

5. Remove the tensioner. The bolt holding the tensioner in place is underneath where the compressor was.

6. Route the belt (diagram below). With the tensioner out of place you are able to route the belt around the alternator pulley. That’s what was giving me trouble. I also had a hard time getting the belt around the pulley at the back (the water pump pulley), but it does indeed squeeze through that tight space pretty easily if you push it through with a flathead screwdriver.

7. Put the new tensioner in place.

8. Reverse the steps to put everything back together

Below is my terribly drawn diagram of the belt. I’m clearly not an artist, but I think it gets the point across:





.

 

Thanks so much for posting this up. I just bought my first Volvo, a 2012 S60 T6. So this is very useful to me.