Do I have to remove the front bumper to replace my serpentine belt on a 2001 a-6? Do I need a special tool to relive the tension?

 

No, you just need a long socket wrench to relieve the tension off the tensioner. The worst part is squeezing the new belt around the crank pulley. 15 minute job.

 

Thanks Hxgaser. I have located the tensioner and the silver 17mm nut. Do I just loosen that nut to relieve tension?

 

I've never done this job on an Audi (or even looked at its setup yet), but speaking from other serpentine belt replacement experience, the bolt usually does one of two things.

You put a breaker bar on your socket for leverage and when you turn the bolt to 'loosen', the whole pulley pivots (spring loaded, so be careful) to relieve tension from the belt.

OR

On Jeep's 4.0 engine, as you turn the bolt, the pulley moves down/up the threads of the bolt to relieve or apply tension. I'm sure other vehicles use this method too, but I'm only familiar w/ Jeep as I've owned several.

Hope this helps. I'll have to go check out Audi's system b/c I plan on doing this job in the near future as piece of mind (just bought car)

 

Thanks guys.
I did it ! It took me about one hour but next time I think I can do it in 20 Minutes.
It helps to have a lever bar on your wrench handle, next time I will. But for those who are doing this themselves you put the 17mm on the silver nut. Push it to the drivers side and hold it there. This will loosen the belt and you can pull it off the top wheel. Then you need a really long screw driver to work the belt past all the fans and pulleys. Once you get it off feed the new one back on and hold the wrench back to the driver side and pull the belt over the top pulley wheel. The repair shop wanted $298 to do it. They said it shows it would take 2.5 hours. The belt cost me $19 and one hour of time. I feel almost as good as I did when I got the two screws loose that hold the instrument cluster in. That is at Module Masters getting the center display rebuilt. The shop wanted $800 to do that and it is costing me $150 and about another hour of time. My next project is to polish my headlights.