Well just like in Kalbone's thread, I think it was him, my crank pulley busted today. Only, there were only about 9k miles on the belt, with no siginificant signs of wear and there was no squealing. The Crank Pulley just busted today with no warning. And to make things worse, my mechanic says it wedged itself inbetween the frame and the axle shaft, thus busting the axle shaft as well. Is this a common problem amongst older MINI's?

BTW, what lightened crank pulley (not oversized) would you recommend as that's cheaper than the OEM so I'm trying to convince my father to go that route.

 

Sorry to hear that.
I think Alta makes a 0% crank pulley...
http://altaminiperformance.com/produ...ankpulley.html

 

Anyone with a takeoff '05 Crank Pulley they'd be willing to give me or sell for cheap?

*EDIT* Nevermind, my father just said to order a new part. So, as much as I would've liked to go with a lightened crank pulley, at my mechanics suggestiong (to myself and my father), I will be replacing the crank pulley with a new OEM crank pulley. Any idea on weight savings from the '05 crank pulley's and the pre-05 pulleys? Will there be any noticeable difference, like faster RPM pick-up?

 

supposedly it's 6lbs lighter.

 

Wow, you guys are making me really glad I replaced mine this spring with an '05 dampener!

 

Did you order it from your dealer, how much $ ?

 

[quote=02///MCS]Nevermind, my father just said to order a new part. /quote]

He said order the part? or did he say order the OEM part?

I see a gray zone here ! order wisely

 

Yeah I feel you. My mechanic says that it must be a somewhat common problem because theres simply no reason for the crank pulley to simply shred to pieces when all else is fine. That and the fact the my dealership had them in stock got him thinking, since their not exactly parts that people replace frequently/normally, unless theres a common problem.

So how was the difference with the '05 damper? Can you give me a review? Thanks.

 

[QUOTE=Bahamabart]Hahaha, my father said to ask my mechanic and do what he recommends. As much as I would've liked to buy an M7 16% Pulley (on my own) and an M7 2% Lightened Crank Pulley to be installed at the same time (labor wouldn't have been much more for the pulley) I decided to listen to my dad as he's paying for all repairs.

Should have the car back by tomorrow as the parts were in stock at the stealership.

 

and how much the dealership charged for the install!

 

Here is the thread that had the info that I found:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ighlight=crank

I noticed a difference with mine, but it wasn't earth shattering. I feel the engine spins up faster, but I don't have any real data to back that up. I went with the new OE part instead of a lightened aftermarket because I wasn't willing to give up the dampening feature of the OEM piece which is designed to counter the SC pulses the MCS is subject to. Big debate about that elsewhere, but those were my opinions. You might want to look at putting a tensioner stop in while you have things apart as well. That saved my dampener when I threw a belt a couple months ago.

Hope you get things back together quickly.

 

I ordered the parts through my mechanic with like a 10% discount and it was roughly $260 for the Vibration Damper and $400 for the Passenger Side Axle Shaft. My Dealership is not doing the labor as I'm out of warranty and I'm using a private mechanic. He is going to charge me roughly $200 for labor.

I should have the car by tomorrow late-afternoon. I'll post back with updates and a review on the new damper if I feel anything.

Thanks for all the replies/help!

 

FWIW...I was talking to a friend at the dealership and he said they have seen crank pulley failures on Mini's...but not often (not many high mileage cars yet, I suppose). He said he sees it all the time on other platforms though. I will be replacing mine with an Alta 0% pulley...IF Alta makes good on my endlink warranty replacements.

 

The 05-06 OEM pulley is almost 2lb lighter then the 02-04 pulley according to Randy Webb.
http://store.webbmotorsports.com/for...opic.php?t=707

"On an '02-early '05 equipped car, the stock size makes an additional 1.5 horsepower."

 

It should make the revs come up a bit quicker. Which should make the car a bit more responsive. If it does have those improvements over stock, then the real bonus is in that, not the 1.5 horsepower.

BTW, took this from another thread in case anyone wants to know, the MINI part number 11-23-7-514-461. I'll double check the part number with my mechanic when I go pick up the car to make sure I'm getting the 05 damper. Does anyone know if the part number is the same and they just discontinued the "old" vibration damper? I'll check realoem.com right quick and post back for future reference.

 

Ok. Well I checked realoem.com and found the following.

The part numbers are the same for both the '02 builds and the '05 builds. However, it says "ENDED" (which means discontinued) as a Note for the part number. And it's the only part number listed for the Vibration Damper.

 

Well, the good news is that I got my car back. The bad news is that it was a damned expensive repair. I saw both the Vibration Damper and the Axle Shaft. It's incredible how the Damper just shredded apart, it was completely shredded, the rubber part. And the Damper had a nice ding on the rim of it from when it knocked the Axle Shaft. The weird part of it all is that the belt was still on and aligned on every other pulley. Anyhow I got a new belt as well.

Now for a quick review, I only drove about 2-3 miles home from my mechanic and I didn't really punch it or do any agressive driving. However, I did notice that the RPMs do go up a little quicker, not much, but you can tell (in neutral) by revving. The RPMs also drop down alot faster, say you blip the throttle once you let off the throttle the RPMs "float" very quickly and then drop down much quicker than stock. I noticed that both upshifts and downshifts became a lot easier and rev-matching is considerably easier now. There is still some lag, but MUCH better over stock. Seat-of-the-pants feel is that the car is a bit more lively now and I think the acceleration got a tiny bit better, haven't really driven hard yet as I want to do a little "break-in" of like 10-15 miles before I drive hard again. This is probably just my mind making me think it's accelerating quicker to lessen the pain of the repairs.

*EDIT* By "stock" I mean stock for my car, which would mean a pre-05 Damper.

 

Glad to hear you got your car back on the road so quickly!