Hi all
I've been browsing the archives for a solution and have hit a brick wall. I'll begin from the start....I installed a 15% pulley and new belt from Alta a few months ago. Shortly after the upgrade I noticed there was a noise coming from the belt side of the motor( sounds like a bad bearing). It is intermittent and I assumed it was a bad idler pulley or tensioner pulley, would worry about it when i got the time to fix it...about the same time the car would randomly throw the check engine light and the code P1688 would appear, turn the ignition off and on and all was good for awhile. I assumed it was an ignition issue as I noticed one of the tips on the old coil pack was rusty. So a new coil pack, wires and plugs went in two weeks ago.
Car ran great for a few days until last week when now the car is almost impossible to drive. It will go into limp mode anytime there is a load on the motor.
After reading the forums I figured it had to be a bad/sticky BPV.. I replaced that today, put everything together and still the same problem.
I've just about given up...could a bad pulley be causing my problem?
Thanks in advance

 

Same issue in November for me. Is there a burning rubber smell on the belt side of the motor? Mine turned out to be a bad crank pulley. It pretty much came apart inside the damper. Replaced with an ATI and she's running like a champ now.

 

I think I may have discovered the problem, I used a wax pen to draw a line across the 2 halves of the pulley to see if they were moving independently of each other . They are.....It appears as though my pulley is junk! The ouside hub is moving slower than the inside hub thus causing the computer to throw the code and put her into limp mode.

 

Call up Way and pick yourself up one of these... http://www.waymotorworks.com/super-d...ulley-r53.html

About the same cost as the OEM and no stinkin rubber to burn out later.

 

I just ordered it today...its on the way!

 

hi, need to know if you solved this problem, as i'm experiencing something similar
i've recently bought a 2005 MCS with 75.000 on it.
received it on saturday, drove a while with no incidents.
on sunday went to change oil, the oil filter and got the air filter changed too. drove several miles (15 to 20) and no problem, just a light burned rubber smell when i got back home, which i thought might have been some oil poured over when the change was done.
a few ours later, i took mi wife and kids for a ride, less than 2 miles from home the car went to limp mode, turning on EML and traction control lights. i shut down the engine, waited for some seconds and ignited again, lights went off and i was able to start again, did it slowly, but upon shifting to 2nd gear, the same thing. happened 3 times and it disappeared, drove about 10 miles, and no incident, the only thing was that the burned rubbed smell was more noticeable.
on monday i drove it first to my officce, had 7 "issues", in sets of 3 and 4, being able to drive lastly without problem for 8 to 10 miles. at noon i took it to bmw service, drove with no incidents for quite a while, including some hard acceleration until it failed for 3 times after 20 to 30 minute drive.
they pulled out the bpv and serviced it to have it fully closed. they said the spring is ok, put everything on and the fault just popped in again. but the burning smell got worse, including ligth traces of smoke from the pulley side.
your feedback will be of great help, as my mechanic wasn't sure the valve was the problem, even though the system threw a p1688 check, along with some overheat on the ps pump along with ps liquid loss.