So far in doing my research on JCW v aftermarket I have not come accross any horror stories of what could happen w/putting in aftermarket pulleys etc. I would like to hear from some people ( if they exist) who have run into trouble or have some horror story about aftermarket parts. I checked with minSf and JCW upgrade is around 6800 installed, just for the basic upgrade. no intake or wheels or brakes or shocks. I would easily go aftermarket but am somewhat reluctant, not only b/c of warranty but because of what mods could do to the engine longterm. I'm not totally ingorant but also not the biggest gearhead ( Iknow how an engine, supercharger, etc works). Hope this post doesn't **** off people who've been discussing this subject for years. Some of the threads are quite old and posting a reply seems irrelevant to the original topic. So please, bring me your sad stories and convince me that paying less than half for better results (so it seems) is a bad idea...................

 

Not many will try to convince you its a bad idea to go non JCW. Now that many aftermarket companies/ tuners are offering warrentys too.

The only horror story that I can think of is when the bolts on the SC pulley were over torqued and broke. But if I remember correctly he fixed it and has no problems since.

My mods are mild, but I've been running the pulley for over 60 thousand miles now, and have had no problems at all.

Nik

 

The problems that can be traced back to a pulley are usually similar in nature from what I have read and experienced. In my case my cylinder head was poorly installed from the factory so when my engine made boost from my 15% pulley it caused the head gasket to fail.

As your thread is titled "BAD Pulley?", the pulley itself doesn't usually fail, rather another part of the engine suffers.

With that said, most people who go aftermarket install a 15% pulley because it is the most conservative size. It has also shown to be the most reliable in the long term (like xsmini and many others can atest to).

 

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