# 1999 new beetle=\> Can a bad alternator cause drive belt failure?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-new-beetle-can-a-bad-alternator-cause-drive-belt-failure/2420>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** belts, airconditioning, timing-belts, alternators\
**Created:** [July 30, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-new-beetle-can-a-bad-alternator-cause-drive-belt-failure/2420 "2007-07-30T19:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deepa\_76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deepa\_76](https://community.cartalk.com/u/deepa_76)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-new-beetle-can-a-bad-alternator-cause-drive-belt-failure/2420/1 "2007-07-30T19:44:08Z")

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I got my timing belt,drive belt water pump replaced by the VW dealership (Winn VW of fremont) in April. Ever since, there has been a different sound (a high frequency hum) in the car. Lately the sound got worse, like a grinding noise and I took it back in. The day I took it in, there was smell of rubber burning too, but only for a little while.  
  
 The diagnosis was a blown ac compressor.  
  
 They said that the rubber burning was nothing serious and that I could drive it around “safely”. Well I took it out with the intention of trading it in, and after a while I had fumes coming up from the hood. There was a red battery sign in the dashboard and so I pulled over.  
  
  
  
 The drive belt was burning away and I had the car towed back in the dealership.  
  
 This morning they said it was the alternator that caused my drive belt to go bad. Can this be true?  
  
  
  
 I have a feeling that they did not install the belt properly which cause the ac compressor and the alternator to go bad. Is there a way to prove this one way or the other?