Aux and alternator belt change

[must go faster]

No record of the belts or spark plugs being changed in the cars service history and after being quoted between £950 and £1300 to get them done by a specialist I decided to give it a go myself.
Got the 2 belts and a set of spark plugs from eurospares for £158 and bought a neat little tool (trident) from eBay to get the alternator stretchy belt on for a further £25. Having never done it before the whole job only took me 4 hours!!
Access is a little tight (no where near as bad as the lotus) but you don’t have to remove that much. Biggest issue was not having a small enough spark plug socket so had to improvise.
Definitely a job you could tackle yourself if so inclined.

 

[must go faster]

For anyone tempted to do this there is an American fella on you tube who has done a Video guide.
Personally I didn’t remove the air filter boxes and pipes, just the lids and filters.
The other thing to note is that the bolts holding on the air inlet pipe are 10mm.
You might not need to take undertray off either but it does give better access to the air inlet bolts (10mm).

Total list of tools required are:
8mm socket - rad trim panel (2bolts)
7mm socket - jubilee clips on air inlet
10mm socket - air inlet bracket
36mm socket - crank pulley bolt
Breaker bar / handle extension - to help turn the crank (alternatively massive guns )
Stanley knife - to cut the alternator belt
3/8ths Ratchet handle and small extension - to rotate the tensioner pulley
Flat blade screwdrivers to undo clips on air box, pipe clips, and electrical connectors.
Trolley jack to raise car enough to get the under-tray off.
Torx bit and either driver or handle to undo the bolts holding the engine undertray on.

cheers

chris