Alternator belt

Thanks everyone for the replies. It was a bit of a struggle to be honest and in the end I had to remove the radiator to access everything and get the pivot bolt undone. Almost got everything put together again but was having trouble putting the radiator back in its mounts. It got dark so will try again over the weekend.

For the past few weeks there was a bit of squeal from the belt along with a burning rubber type smell so as Facade says I think something else must be wrong. I initially thought alternator as there was some black residue on the front of it but the pulley seems to be turning okay (stiffer than the fan pulley but still able to turn by hand). So could it just be that the belt was old and started to fall apart? The PS belt looked like it had seen better days as it was covered in cracks so I replaced that as well

When i did mine i found in fairly short order that the idler tensioner failed and had to be replaced as on the vvt it isn't as serviceable as the early ones. I also found that gates brand belts refused to stop squealing i now have dayco and they are bod on.

I got mine from Euro Car Parts so they are Continental Contitech.

Does anyone know if the PS belt is meant to have as much tension as the fan belt? My PS belt doesn't seem as tense even after adjusting the tension pulley. I took my old worn belt in to Euro Car Parts when I collected the new one and the one they provided was a bit too big, so they had to measure my old one to get one the same length. I ended up getting one slightly shorter as the old one was severely cracked and probably stretched but it still appears to go on a bit too easily.

That's a handy picture of the tensioner Facade. Thank you! It's a 6mm allen key isn't it?

That's interesting, my belt broke shortly after I got the car, it was squealing when I got it so was on its way out I believe. I put a gates belt on but it squeals on the odd occasion when the alternator is under load. I always believed gates where the best you could buy bar oem.

Thanks everyone for your input so far. I've managed to get everything back together but now the car won't run. It starts fine but there aren't enough revs to keep it running. The battery light goes on and off and the car dies within a second or two unless I keep my foot on the gas. The only way I can describe it is that it feels the same as it would feel if someone had blocked the exhaust pipe. Any suggestions?!