Belt change on e46 (M52TU engine) -- completed

["Philip Alpatov" <palpatov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	Thanks to everyone that have responded to my question. The original
confusion stemmed from the fact that BMW has two types of tensioner design:
hydrolic and mechanical.  M52TU engines can apparently come equiped with
either one on either of the two drivebelts. Some of the answers that I got
applied to the other design, so .... The mechanical is in my opinion the
easier to handle, since it comes with the hex nut that one can apply the
regular (16mm?) socket to. The hydraulic design requires more of a brute
force approach. Here one has to use a Hex driver (8mm), that goes in the
center of the tensioner pulley itself. I did not have an adapter, so I had
to manage with the regular L-shaped Hex key. It takes a bit of an effort
with such a small leverage. I succeeded, but would prefer to have a socket
adapter next time.

Thanks to everybody, who took the time to reply, to Carl Sholz, Doug Wirth,
Ron Buchalski, Rory Sprouse (great diagramms!) and Folks at Bentley
Publishers ( Charles Burke and Soheil Zender) who have graciously sent me
pictures from the repair manual.

Philip Alpatov
99'323i 60K

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