I have some rattling coming from the passenger/pulley side of the enginer on my 04 MCS w/ 85k miles.

I want to attempt to get rid of the rattle, upgrade the replacement parts, and replace anything needed for some preventative maintenance measures.

I am going to be replacing the crank pulley with Alta 2%, the S/C pulley with Alta 15%, and the alternator pulley with a ALTAnator pulley. I figured the Belt Tensioner should be replaced as well since those are known to go bad and rattle. Someone also suggested doing the "idler pulley" at the same time.

I was checking REALOEM.com for part numbers and they don't list an "idler pulley". Are they referring to #04Deflection pulley
1

11287570810$82.00 in this diagram?


Has anyone had issues with the #
03ADJUSTING PULLEY
1

11280946004$45.97
failing and/or rattling? Does it have an expected service life?

Are all of the bolts (except main crank bolt) reusable?

 

They are talking about #3
the one you are refering to, #4 is only present on cars that have had the AC removed.
I would reccomend you stick with a dampened pulley...WMW does sell an onerdrive dampened one....
Jan of RMW says he has seen a number of pulley failures (of the lightweight, undampened varriety. Undampened pulleys are conterversal...but they are cheap...

 

The belt tennsioner, the #1 you refer to comes with a new pulley...the gas strut can go bad...causing rattles.

 

Thanks for all of the info.

That's the reason I choose to go with the undampened pulley. I don't know what shape my stock pulley is in, but the fact that it has 6 year old 85k mile rubber in it and is covered in rust leads me to believe its better to replace with what I can than leave it in there. Especially after discovering all the other rubber is bad - control arms, engine mount, o-ring leak...

 

The ballbearing of the tensioner and the adjustable pulley are worn out on my 60k MCS. I went to the dealer, they first quoted me a price of about $325 including labour. This was on the phone, calling them.

Today they quoted me $610 for the exact same job. Also they tried to tell me the compressor needed replacement... The car has been sitting in a garage all through october, november and nearly all of december, the compressor was replaced in october (2010). Since then the car has driven less then 1.000 miles.
Including the belt, the pulleys and the compressor, the new estimated price was way over $3250!

I've contacted a Mini tuner that's about 90 miles away, but supposed to be the best in our little country. They've quoted me a price of $350 for the two pulleys, including the belt, labour and everything. I can bring my car around tomorrow-morning, instead of waiting for two-three weeks as I had to do at the official dealer...

Ergo: if you can do it yourself, do it! Don't just believe the dealer, get a second opinion (I did that beforehand). If they try to screw you over: leave.

[edit]
Had it replaced this morning. No problems, supercharger is fine they said. Cost me about $360 all-in.
Had to get through a couple of traffic jams to get there, took me an hour and a half extra :/

 

Replacing the drive belt tensioner on R53 without lift the engine, only removing the upper engine mount. There is 4 bolts:
M16x70mm
M16x50mm
2xM10x35mm

watch the video

 

 

 

Size of serpentine Belt for Mini Cooper S 2006

This is OEM belt size for Mini Cooper S 2006 R53 prod. 10/2005:
13.88mm 6PK1388

This is the OEM size for Mini Cooper JCW:
13.74mm 6PK1374

I use on Mini Cooper S 2006 a 15% reduction pulley. The belt that fits perfect is:
13.60 mm (NAPA 25-K060535 or BANDO 6PK1360)

I already have used both but by the construction and material I prefer BANDO.

 

if you are looking for a cross reference table for sizes of serpentine belts check this out

http://crossbelts.com/serpentine/6ribkseries.html

 

I used this method to replace my failed belt tensioner this last weekend. I spent more of my time trying to get the plastic rivets out of the wheel liner than I did on the tensioner. It worked like a charm. Thanks for posting this CooperSml!

 

I am really glad to hear that. Regarding the plastic rivets: there is two things I keep a bounch around the garage plastic rivet and body nut, if they start giving me problem I rip them apart and I use a brand new one.