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[Turk]

A colleague has just snapped his belt. (It's only about 6 months old  :-/).
I can fix it at my mates garage which is under four miles from where the car is now.
Any ideas whether it would be ok to nurse it over ? 

[Omegatoy]

just about the same as the water pump sheding its vsnes mate, less than a mile will have it boiling up, towing is the best option

[Turk]

Aye, thought that may be the case, but towing is going to be a risky business with conditions as they are at the moment.
Main roads are passable, but only with caution. I've seen a couple of 'A-road' incidents where the vehicle has left the road and ended up on on its roof. 

[Ian_D]

Cant you replace the belt where its currently parked?

It shouldnt take long?

[TheBoy]

With no water pump, I wouldn't drive it more than a few hundred yards.

That BMW engine isn't very resilient when cooked.

[Pitchfork]

With no water pump, I wouldn't drive it more than a few hundred yards. I would say feet not yards given how my Traktor behaved when the waterpump bearing collapsed!That BMW engine isn't very resilient when cooked.

[hoofing it]

You might laugh at this but loads of rubber bands round the crank to the water pump.
Ive done this on several cars and that includes my tractor

[PhilRich]

You might laugh at this but loads of rubber bands round the crank to the water pump.
Ive done this on several cars and that includes my tractor

It used to be the girlfriends silk stocking when I wer but a lad!

[Turk]

Only issue with using a short belt just for the waterpump is that to fit it would be only slightly less work than doing the whole job there.
Seeing as I'm doing it for free, I'm not gonna freeze my bits off doing the job in the car park.

There's also the issue of what caused a 6 month old, low mileage belt to fail. Don't know whether I'm gonna find something more problematic than just changing the belt.
Unlikely to be anything other than belt failure, but if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. 

[Omegatoy]

Only issue with using a short belt just for the waterpump is that to fit it would be only slightly less work than doing the whole job there.
Seeing as I'm doing it for free, I'm not gonna freeze my bits off doing the job in the car park.

There's also the issue of what caused a 6 month old, low mileage belt to fail. Don't know whether I'm gonna find something more problematic than just changing the belt.
Unlikely to be anything other than belt failure, but if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. 

far as i know only 3 things are likely to cause the belt to break, if the belt was not at fault

1, seized water pump(likely with this weather)
2, faulty tensioner assembly
3 seized or damaged alternator
may be an idea to carry or get a few spares  ready?

[Turk]

Only issue with using a short belt just for the waterpump is that to fit it would be only slightly less work than doing the whole job there.
Seeing as I'm doing it for free, I'm not gonna freeze my bits off doing the job in the car park.

There's also the issue of what caused a 6 month old, low mileage belt to fail. Don't know whether I'm gonna find something more problematic than just changing the belt.
Unlikely to be anything other than belt failure, but if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. 

far as i know only 3 things are likely to cause the belt to break, if the belt was not at fault

1, seized water pump(likely with this weather)
2, faulty tensioner assembly
3 seized or damaged alternator
may be an idea to carry or get a few spares  ready?

I've got a belt and replacement tensioner ordered for delivery tomorrow (hopefully). 
Don't think (and hope it's not) a seized waterpump. The car was idle between 10am and 4pm and had been driven about 14 miles prior to that.
It wasn't that cold here on Sunday and the car was in a sheltered area with no wind chill factor.
Hopefully it's a tensioner issue as I don't fancy doing another alternator exchange any time soon. 

[TheBoy]

You might laugh at this but loads of rubber bands round the crank to the water pump.
Ive done this on several cars and that includes my tractor

It used to be the girlfriends silk stocking when I wer but a lad!

Any excuse to get the ladies to remove them

[Turk]

Got the car to the garage. It transpires the owner has 'recovery' on his insurance policy, so it was 'flat bedded' down.
The belt and tensioner arrived today.
The cause of the belt failure appears to be the tensioner wheel arm and part of the pivot collar has snapped. Found it on the underside splash tray.
On it's trip around the front of the engine it's also shattered the plastic outer edge of the A/C tensioner wheel. 
Not a problem as I'm reasonably sure both of these are still on my other car.
A new waterpump was fitted last year and it's turning freely, so I don't think that was the cause.
Can't see any other damage, so fingers crossed the bits we need are still on my spares car, and he'll be sorted in the next day or so.

[Omegatoy]

Got the car to the garage. It transpires the owner has 'recovery' on his insurance policy, so it was 'flat bedded' down.
The belt and tensioner arrived today.
The cause of the belt failure appears to be the tensioner wheel arm and part of the pivot collar has snapped. Found it on the underside splash tray.
On it's trip around the front of the engine it's also shattered the plastic outer edge of the A/C tensioner wheel. 
Not a problem as I'm reasonably sure both of these are still on my other car.
A new waterpump was fitted last year and it's turning freely, so I don't think that was the cause.
Can't see any other damage, so fingers crossed the bits we need are still on my spares car, and he'll be sorted in the next day or so.

it wasnt the actual pulley wheel had seized then? just trying to wor out what caused the arm and collar to break???

[Turk]

Pulley wheel spins as it should, so bearing is ok.

I was rather surprised to find the collar had broken too.