I had a shop change my pully belt on my 2003 MCS with 17% pully about 600 miles ago. When I initially got it home my wife said something sounded "funny" with the engine. I paid no attention to her comment (unfortunately). Well Saturday I was getting into traffic and I heard what sounded like a plastic bag under the hood being blown in the wind. What happened was that the belt simply disintergrated. I called the shop and found them open and had the car towed to them and they replaced the belt at no charge for me on the spot. I think that I just got hold of a bad belt or that maybe the belt was a groove off when initially installed. The old belt was put on about a year ago when I did the 17% pully mod, and had no problem with that at all.

The question is - has this happened to any of you guys with modded pullys, or do you think this was just an isolated? I'm getting ready to head out on a 1,000 mile trip and am a b it gun shy about taking it that far. I do carry a spare belt now!

 

Then if you learn how to change it you'll be pretty self sufficent. The more you can do youself on a dark rainy night on the side of the road the more confident you'll be about wandering with confidence.

Second best is having what you need for someone else to replace for you.

 

but they tend to not do it so young. If it keeps happening with low belt mileage, something is out of alignment. Could be the SC pully (if it started with that change). Tensionsers go bad, then check the idler....

Matt

 

The belt that I put on 10 months ago started making noise(The worn belt clicking sound).Its a good thing that I listened to the sound advice to change sc belt every 10,000 mi.,cuz this thing was a disater waiting to happen.This was a P.O.S brand called Bando.From now on it's Gatorback belts.They rock.

 

i have had two belt just shred on me. once was on the street and the second time was the main straight at road america doing over 100mph. i have heard and read rumors about people running into this problem of the belt just going on these cars. it is for sure not a good thing and im glad you didnt have a horrible experience with yours. and it is a good thing to keep a spare with you and it would be a smart thing to buy the tensioner tool also so you can do it yourself!!!

 

Thanks guys, I think that I had a bad install or belt. I will be mindful in the future of "sounds" from under the hood.

By the way - I was told by the shop (very reputable BMW/Mini mechanics) that belts are definitely a problem on mods that have both the SC pulley and crank pulley installed, but that usually the SC pulley only is just fine. I had about 12,000 on my first belt after the 17% SC pulley installed and everything was fine. The shop said the belt they took off when they did my service was OK, but they installed the new belt as requested. Go figure.....

 

The smaller the pulley the more heat is generated in the belt and this will shorten the life.

 

Fellas,

I went through this whole drama after installing the Alta v.2 and new Gatorback back in January. Details are over in the Europe forum. 288 Km / 178.95 Mi on the new belt and it just detonated. €651 / $988 for towing, replacing the crank pulley and tensioner arm. As a result, I bought the Detroit Tuned Tensioner stop and a couple of the crew from Germany bought Minspeed's version. Regardless of which, had I known that this amount of damage was even a remote, but real, possibility, I would have made it a package deal: stop, pulley and belt all together. I'm waiting on my tensioner tool to come in and I'll replace the belt the dealer put back on after repairs. Yes, the OEM belt which was removed to install the Gatorback! It's was installed new at Inspection II and has put another 1781 miles since this incident. I'm guessing it was a bad belt after all. Regardless, $20 for the stop, an hour (max) to install would've saved all that money which could have gone a LONG way to my next mod. Hope this helps.

Cheers!!

 

I have had gatorbacks shred on me.... not my mini though. I lost a timing belt and a altenator/waterpump belt on my eclipse, they were both gator backs, fresh installs. I avoid

 

The Detriot Tuned Tensioner Stop looks like a no-brainer investment... How hard is it to install and what special tools are required? FYI - I'm not currently running a smaller pulley, but I'm considering switching to a smaller one in the future. Sounds like the Detroit Tuned part is advantageous even with the stock pulley though...

 

Yes the DT stop is an excellent product as is the Minspeed one http://www.minspeed.net/TSB.htm

Both are fairly easy to install if you can get your hands up onto the tensioner w/o having to remove it.

 

Absolutely a no-brainer and a fairly easy install. A 13mm box wrench and flexible hands and wrists were all that was needed. Only way to make it any easier would be to use a ratcheting box wrench as it is a stretch to get up into the engine bay. I was able to do the job without releasing the tensioner arm, either. The hardest part was trying to get the expanding rivets holding the wheel liner off, without destroying them in the process. It is possible, just a bit tricky.

Cheers!!