I'm thinking about putting a 15% or 17% pulley on my wife's daily driver MCS, but I'm worried that if the belt snaps she'll be stranded on her commute on the beltway.

I've been leaning towards 15% since it uses the stock belt, and snapping that seems very rare, but the increase in performance for the 17% is hard to pass up.

Would my wife (who's adept at mechanics) be able to replace her 17% on the side of the road if it were to snap? How long would it take?

 

get a 15%, belt won't snap. 17% i can't promise, but i haven't heard of one snapping. I have a 17% and i drive hell out of it, and its fine.

But don't keep the stock belt. Get a gatorback shorter belt, and buy/fabricate a belt tensioner tool. All your wife has to do if she throws a belt is immediately stop the car, turn it off. Remove the passenger side front wheel and arch liner, open the hood and slip the tool on the tensioner, and fit the spare belt on....

 

I wouldn't worry about the belt breaking on the 15% or the 17%(or 19%). I ran my stock belt for ~60k miles with my 15%, and have since been running with the JCW belt since then ~30k miles.

The belt is simple to change if you have the tool, but that means you have to be driving around with tools, and spare belts.

I don't carry any of these things, and over 1/2 my commute I'm 30+ miles from anything. Just check it frequently, replace as necessary and you'll be fine.

Nik

 

You can do it all from the top, no need to remove the liner. (At least I didn't )

Nik

 

really? what year is your MCS?

 

03......... now you're making me question myself. But I don't remember taking the liner off except when I installed the pulley. Definatly not when I replaced the belt. Its been a few miles though

Nik

 

now you're making ME question myself i didn't take the liner off when installing my pulley.....

 

Poor xizor, simple question, and two guys who can't remember what they did

Either way its a simple job if you have the tool. I tried to do it without and couldn't. But the chances of it breaking are pretty slim, just check the belt every month or so, and replace as necessary. This should be done regardless of pulley size, stock or not.

etalj - I'll let you know if I remove the liner the next time I change my belt aprox another 30K.. probably March, should be at 150k by then

Nik

 

hehe, sorry xisor
i agree, i check my belt every month or so...

i'll do you one better, i'll be changing my belt soon in preperation for the track, just waiting for my belt tensioner tool to arrive.....

 

i bought a belt yesterday figuring on popping it on when i got home as i had no issues doing the pulley. well there's a hell of alot more room with the engine up .! there's no way i'm getting my meathooks in there without pulling the fender well .

 

Yup there is more room .............. on the top end, but getting the belt between the crank pulley and the frame rail on my 02 with the engine up is a real pain.

I did a pulley change on the wife's 05 on Sunday (love the redesigned passenger side mount, BTW) and it took a little less then 2 hours. I pulled the fender well liner.

I changed the belt on my 02 on Monday (57,000 miles) and it took less then 20 minutes, I also pulled the liner.

BTW, I've got some diagrams in my gallery of my tension tool. Cost less then $5 to make with flat stock from Lowes and some scrap 1.5 inch pipe.

 

gatorback?

 

 

i don't want to sound like an *** but the best investment (that's democrat talk for spend) i ever made was on a manuel for this car . it's an awsome manuel too . puts chiltons and such to shame .this is the real mccoy. check it out at mini mania.impatientimpatient

 

I have done one replacement from the top (that was a P.I.T.A.)

I did a track side replacement from the side/ removing inner fender, in 20 min
... so much easier and really can see what you are doing.

Note; if I had done the trackside replacement fom the top ... I would NOT have been able to remove the shredded peices of the old belt / or be really sure that I did.

The JCW belt is the correct (shorter) length to use with a 15% pulley
(the belt was on sale by a vendor at the track and it was LESS than the stockbelt !

 

Manuals are good - I have the Bentley Book and use it all the time. But I agree with GC that a well written DIY is very handy. Would you tackle the pulley mod without Randy's write-up? Even other vendors are using his write up as a reference when they sell their own brands of pulleys.

And yes I know that this is a relatively easy procedure, but tidbits from other folks can make is even easier. I've got a bunch of them stuffed in the front section of my manual; from How to reset the service indicator to How to wire up lighted door sill plates. Each one helpful!

 

Here's another tidbit...
Make a diagram of the belt routing. Have a small allen wrench or similar tool to lock the tensioner after you take off the tension with the proper tool.

 

Ok, I lied, I did take the liner off. My memory is coming back now.......... sorry about the earlier lapse

Install pulley, raise motor, leave liner on......
replace belt, remove liner work thru wheel well........

Yes I remember now

May be simple, but not a job I would want to do on the side of busy interstate. Parking lot yet, side of road, no.......

Put the 15, 17, or 19% on and check the belt periodically and you'll be fine.

I'll keep quiet now, until I know what I'm talking about

Nik

 

My belt snapped (today on a busy road) after only about 3k miles with the 15% pulley: can the belt tensioner break perhaps? Unpleasant experience.

 

Ouch! sorry to hear that. Anything can break.
You should really think about installing a tensioner stop. I just put one on the other day. It saves a lot of other stuff from breaking when the belt or tensioner breaks.
http://www.myminiparts.com/proddetai...prod=TSB&cat=7

 

How many miles on the car, total? If not many, I would check to see if the pulley has nicks or rough spots on it, and alignment, or you may break more belts. Just a precaution since I had my 15% pulley on for 46000 miles on the original belt before I changed it for MTTS.

Steve

 

17100 (or thereabouts), on a '02, the belt (NAPA) was the one ALTA supplied with the pulley, I did not think to check the length of the belt, I am going to put on a JCW belt just to be safe? Although, there might be a ghost in the machine as the computer was acting real funny and either the power steering pump or something else continued to spin for about 15 minutes after I stopped the car (and removed the key).

 

phew....i wasn't wrong


sounds like your pulley is misaligned, MCSneworleans, a belt shouldn't snap on a 15% pulley on the highway....

 

JCW belt can't hurt, but be sure to check the other things or you may just break that one too. The cooling fan may run after the car is off if it was hot but I don't know if the '02 is supposed to or not.

Steve

 

the water pump is driven by the supercharger, that's why it stayed on probably