Managed to swop back the Com2000 last Fri, before my trip up to Sth London later that evening. About 4 miles from my destination, there was a loud bang from the engine bay. Then no power assistance! So I assumed the aux belt had snapped/come off. Decided to limp last bit of journey. Steering very heavy. Don’t think my other half would have been able to drive it like that.
When I looked in the engine bay, sure enough the belt was off, but it looked like the crank pulley had partially broken apart. I now know, it has a shock absorbing rubber inner. I had noticed fine metallic dust around the belt area. In fact last couple of times I cleaned the car, it seemed to have fine dirt on driver’s door and rear door. It was hard to remove. Now looks like this was more of the metal dust.
As I was away from home, I put it into a garage. Cost me £202. I thought that a bit steep, but the pulley was 60 odd + vat, 20 something + vat for the belt. 1.2 hrs labour. So it does stack up. I was ecpecting the pulley to be about a tenner!
Now the thing is, I had the timing belt, water pump and aux belt changed about 3 months ago (10 years, 110k miles). So that garage would have taken the pulley off. Do you think they are in any way to blame for this pulley failing?
If I had known that it is a common thing to fail on the HDi, I might have got them to change it at the time. Then it should have only cost me the price of the pulley.
Looking back, there was a strange sound from that end of the engine just after the timing belt change. Sounded like a rattle, like a cover not been done up properly. I didn’t take it back to them though, as thought it might be my imagination.
Anyway the upshot is, if you have the HDi (mine’s the 2.0) and its due a timing belt change (100k miles), consider changing the pulley at the same time. At least check for this dust.
Also, are there any other “known problems” I need to be on the look out for ???
Here' a pic of the outer part of the pulley. I think part of the pulley was lost on the road.
And another showing what looks like wear on one of the tensioner pulleys. Guess it was this that the crank pulley was rubbing against ?!
When I looked in the engine bay, sure enough the belt was off, but it looked like the crank pulley had partially broken apart. I now know, it has a shock absorbing rubber inner. I had noticed fine metallic dust around the belt area. In fact last couple of times I cleaned the car, it seemed to have fine dirt on driver’s door and rear door. It was hard to remove. Now looks like this was more of the metal dust.
As I was away from home, I put it into a garage. Cost me £202. I thought that a bit steep, but the pulley was 60 odd + vat, 20 something + vat for the belt. 1.2 hrs labour. So it does stack up. I was ecpecting the pulley to be about a tenner!
Now the thing is, I had the timing belt, water pump and aux belt changed about 3 months ago (10 years, 110k miles). So that garage would have taken the pulley off. Do you think they are in any way to blame for this pulley failing?
If I had known that it is a common thing to fail on the HDi, I might have got them to change it at the time. Then it should have only cost me the price of the pulley.
Looking back, there was a strange sound from that end of the engine just after the timing belt change. Sounded like a rattle, like a cover not been done up properly. I didn’t take it back to them though, as thought it might be my imagination.
Anyway the upshot is, if you have the HDi (mine’s the 2.0) and its due a timing belt change (100k miles), consider changing the pulley at the same time. At least check for this dust.
Also, are there any other “known problems” I need to be on the look out for ???
Here' a pic of the outer part of the pulley. I think part of the pulley was lost on the road.
And another showing what looks like wear on one of the tensioner pulleys. Guess it was this that the crank pulley was rubbing against ?!