Headache

mastershake · 03-12-2013, 05:04 AM

so a little background info...

i bought a gatorback belt and had a shop put it on back in september. it was rubbing against the tensioner and ended up fraying so i took it to another shop and had them put another gatorback on, along with a new tensioner as suggested by the mechanic. (i trust this shop from previous experiences so i agreed).

this was in january.

skip to now. i get out of work and start my car, immediately hearing a flapping noise. i knew it had something to do with the belt, so i popped the hood and looked. didn't see anything unusual, but there was a LOUD flapping noise.

i thought, ok, lets try to make it home. nope. pull out of the driveway and hear a loud noise (belt ripping apart), so i pull back off the road to check and the belt is destroyed. the only thing i can really see is it looked like it skipped a tooth on the crank pulley.

so. with all that said, what could be going wrong? is the crank pulley out of alignment?

also, if it is, will the shop still pay to replace the belt/towing fee, since they were the ones to put it on?

as much as i love it, this car is a freaking headache

sleepyalero · 03-12-2013, 06:00 AM

i dont think they will since its been a few months since installed. before i would think anything else is wrong i would switch to a "stock" belt. see if you have they same problem, if you do then i would think its not the belt it would be a pulley. and if you can, install this one yourself.

RalphP · 03-12-2013, 09:58 AM

If the crank pulley is out of alignment, that's usually caused by the harmonic balancer failing (the rubber inserts fail with age).

I'd get a straight edge and make sure the pulleys all line up. If they do, then it's time to also check the tensioners and idlers to make sure you don't have a bad one.

If they don't, check the pulley that DOESN'T line up.

But no, I wouldn't expect the shop to cover towing if the crank pulley is now out of alignment. It could easily have been IN alignment when they installed the belt.

RwP

mastershake · 03-12-2013, 01:55 PM

apparently all the pulleys are fine. i guess he didn't install the tensioner correctly so he did everything for free. i just had to pay for the tow.

mastershake · 03-14-2013, 09:38 AM

update: belt shredded again. this time the mechanic looked at it while it was running and the crank pulley is wobbling quite a bit (how did i not see that before?)

they said it could possibly be the crank.

how much am i looking at to fix this....

also he told me it was fine and that i could drive on this half torn belt....

zzyzzx · 03-14-2013, 01:08 PM

Is there some reason why you keep on reusing the Gatorback belt? The Dayco one is thicker. What brand tensioner was used?

RalphP · 03-14-2013, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mastershake

update: belt shredded again. this time the mechanic looked at it while it was running and the crank pulley is wobbling quite a bit (how did i not see that before?)

they said it could possibly be the crank.

how much am i looking at to fix this....

also he told me it was fine and that i could drive on this half torn belt....

It possibly could be. However, with a much higher rate of failure of the balancer, I'd DEFINATELY look at that first.

If you put the car on jack stands, remove the passenger front tire, remove the inner fender, and look at the dampener / balancer, I bet you'll see the rubber cracking and shredding between the inner and outer portions.

At that point, it's possible to do the balancer yourself if you so choose.

RwP

a.graham52 · 03-14-2013, 03:16 PM

not only that but the balancer is much cheaper then a crank R&R. much better to just throw the balancer at it and hope it fixes it rather then have the crank replaced and still not be right possibly.

zzyzzx · 03-14-2013, 08:05 PM

Call me silly, but on most cars isn't a balancer rubber part failure pretty rare?

I mean when my strut mount went bad, it was because the metal part rusted out, but the rubber part was still good. It was 17 years old.

sleepyalero · 03-14-2013, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mastershake

update: belt shredded again. this time the mechanic looked at it while it was running and the crank pulley is wobbling quite a bit (how did i not see that before?)

they said it could possibly be the crank.

how much am i looking at to fix this....

also he told me it was fine and that i could drive on this half torn belt....

I would not drive on a half torn belt. That's the worst suggestion I've heard from a shop.

zzyzzx · 03-15-2013, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

I would not drive on a half torn belt. That's the worst suggestion I've heard from a shop.

I'd be OK with it, as long as I had another one in the car and my tools, and a couple of jacks, and a AAA membership.

RalphP · 03-15-2013, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zzyzzx

Call me silly, but on most cars isn't a balancer rubber part failure pretty rare?

I mean when my strut mount went bad, it was because the metal part rusted out, but the rubber part was still good. It was 17 years old.[/img]

Actually, no, the rubber failing is a LOT more common than the metal failing on a harmonic balancer. Matter of fact, the only times I've seen the metal fail is after the rubber lets go and the outer section does a rapid departure at high engine speeds.

Consider that the strut mount isn't subjected to petrochemicals, high engine heat, and spinning at up to 5,000 RPM routinely ...

And that there was probably more rubber in the strut mount than in the harmonic balancer.

Let's not forget the main difference between a "race" balancer and a "street" balancer is the rubber compound used.

RwP

jackal2000 · 03-15-2013, 10:33 AM

I think Ralph is on point with this one.

mastershake · 03-15-2013, 04:10 PM

it was the balancer.

318 bucks including the belt >.<

total money spent on the alero this year (so far): $800