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The other day I decided to inspect the serpentine belt and check the various pulleys on my 2017 F56 S. For the S, that 4-cylinder engine's bigger size makes this one heck of a pain -- even with a tool to deal with the belt tensioner, it was a tight fit and having a 2nd person to help would have been useful. To pin the tensioner in belt-relaxed position you have to be under the car while the tensioner is held by the tool, and with the lack of clearance with the 4-banger you have to come at the tensioner with the tool from *above* the car. Fun.
Anyway, I managed to finagle my way through that, which let me check the pulleys.
Question about the harmonic balancer -- it spins just fine, but if I grab the rear section of it (note this is an original harmonic balancer, and the design has since been updated) I can wobble it so much that you can see the wobble, not just feel it as you do so. Same basic test you would do grabbing opposite sides of a wheel and shaking it, to see if it's firmly and properly attached to the hub.
A wheel should spin, but nothing else. But for the harmonic balancer, having rubber in between the 2 sections, I don't know how much play is too much. Are they supposed to have any play at all? Any guidance is welcome. The car has just over 100K miles and was manufactured October 2016, so, well, yino. If it's replacement time, it's replacement time.
Harmonic balancer with play doesn't sound (err read) right. A balancer with play would not be consistent with its balancing thus it would be an unharmonic balancer...
While I can't state outright you need to replace the balancer I think you need to get the car in to a MINI shop and get a professional tech's opinion.
Harmonic balancer with play doesn't sound (err read) right. A balancer with play would not be consistent with its balancing thus it would be an unharmonic balancer...
While I can't state outright you need to replace the balancer I think you need to get the car in to a MINI shop and get a professional tech's opinion.
Yeah, the more I think about it the less I like it. Given that:
- With my bare hands and little effort I can tilt the part of the pulley that is turning the belt, so that it is out of alignment with thr pulley’s “powered” (if you will) center piece,
and…
- the tensioner, through the belt, yanks on the same part of the pulley far harder than I can with my hands…
- stands to reason that the belt alignment while running is going to be out of whack, and with that going on the belt will unevenly pull on the other pulleys, potentially leading to damage (I had alternator bearings fail on a non-MINI that similarly had a 2-piece crank pulley failing in similar fashion.
@JosephM635 Didn't know WMW had this. They are local to me -- amazing shop. @WayMotorWorks doesn't mess around with things that don't work well -- in fact, their shop seeks things that work beyond well. I appreciate this. Thank you!
Anyone knows if this would work with the B38? Thanks
The ATI pulley is listed on the @WayMotorWorks site under the F56 Cooper S section (B46/B48 engine) but not under the F56 base Cooper section (B36/B38 engine). So I would assume no. The way to check for sure would be to contact Way Motor Works directly.
I plan to have the ATI pulley installed on my Cooper S, as I had my first MINI worked on by Way more than once -- I have seen his work and level of care firsthand, and I trust his judgment. But I would absolutely ask directly about any usage beyond that indicated on their website. The precision (showing under Cooper S but not base Cooper) is likely intentional.
So I picked up the WMW ATI pulley and guess what? I'm installing it. I am in risk-breaking-car-ok-not-really-but-hey-if-you-look-at-it-wrong-ok-fine-go-for-it mode.
Questions:
(1) Would you replace the crankshaft seal as part of this operation? TIS seems to indicate that that's just part of how you do this, but seeking POVs especially from those who have done this themselves.
(2) If you have replaced the crankshaft seal on your F55/F56 (whether associated with replacing the crankshaft pulley or not), how did you handle properly seating the seal?
Well, replaced the crank pully/harmonic balancer/vibration dampener/thing of a million names.
(1) Installed the WMW ATI pulley. Nice unit. No issues with it.
(2) Did NOT replace the crankshaft seal. Mine was fine. Leave well enough alone, as they say.
(3) Install has a catch -- you have GOT to lock the flywheel for torque-down of the replacement bolts (and those bolts are torque-to-yield, 28Nm + turn an additional 180 degrees). I was only able to get 90 degrees before I got to worrying about either snapping the heads off the bolts (unlikely) or maybe twist-snapping a tool (definitely felt possible). But I will have a shop torque the remaining 90 degrees.
(4) Uninstall of the old pulley was not horrible, 1 bolt came off without issue with an impact wrench, the other 3 took PB Blaster and multiple coaxings. Without an impact wrench I'm pretty sure I would have been sunk.
The old pulley definitely had some wobble in it. Not enough for you to catch with the serpentine belt tight, but once the belt was loosened I could grab it and move the outer ring axially while the inner ring was stationary. The outer ring wouldn't spin separately, but I could definitely wobble it by hand. Under engine stresses wobbling would have been a foregone conclusion (posing risk to other pulleys spun by the belt). So the replace was a solid call, and I am secondarily glad that I picked the WMW product.
Speaking of the serpentine belt, mine was an original BMW part and guess what? It had a date code on it. Sep 2016. 7 year old belt. So I decided to remove and replace it (I had another, same part number, date code Mar 2022). I got it done -- but I am NEVER doing that again. There is NO space to work in front of the pulleys in the S/JCW. I halfway considered cutting the old belt out at one point. It would have been easier -- "easier" -- if I had actually removed the alternator, which requires removing a bunch of other stuff, and... look, it was a good learning exercise, glad I did it, but I am going to throw my belt tool into the lake and drink coffee while I pay someone else to change that doggoned belt next time. OMG.
