After considerable research on a preemptive replacement of the 15 year old OEM crank dampener on our 06 R53 with only 65k miles, I purchased from Waymotorworks an ATI Super Crank damper and had it installed yesterday. My reason for the replacement was based on age rather than mileage. My initial impressions are 1. Engine vibration is noticeably reduced to the point of being nearly nonexistent at idle. 2. Power application on acceleration is much smoother and nearly vibration free.
3. Acceleration is much more responsive and feels again noticeably quicker. 4. At cruise I detected little if any vibration. Bottom line, I am very satisfied with the ATI damper and the prompt, courteous information and service received from Waymotorworks. Was it worth the added expense compared to other products? Based on the observed superb quality of the product, nothing but positive reviews posted on numerous non MINI car forums, the witnessed improved performance and the fact that the ATI Damper can be rebuilt made the added expense for me a mute point. So if one doesn’t want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a 15 year old oem crank damper that could decide to give up the ghost at any moment, this may be a viable consideration. PS— I have no affiliation with the aforementioned product or vendor.

 

If I understand you correctly, you had a mechanic install the part for you. How many hours of labor were involved in this replacement?

Did you get a look at the old crank dampener pulley? If so, how did it look?

I notice WMW offers a couple of options for this product, such as seal, etc. What did you do?

 

I installed one on my JCW many years ago (along with a new belt tensioner) in an effort to remedy the “death rattle.” In short, it worked, along with many of the other improvements you’ve noted.
It’s a great product.
I don’t recall the install time - I was replacing the front main seal and TCCG at the same time. But it’s probably a one hour job if you have the right tools and know how.

 

I was charged for one hour of labor. However our MINI tech is the best so his vast experience with MINIs and BMWs might have influenced that time frame. The oem crank dampener looked ok, almost new like. I couldn’t examine the rubber dampener portion of the pulley since it hadn’t failed. I chose the option of purchasing the new attach bolt. I asked our tech about the seal and he said that he has never seen one fail—so I went with his advice and didn’t purchase it. He did say the seal looked fine. I decided to do this change preemptively based on experiencing the dilemma of the failure of a crank pulley on a friends 06 R52 on a recent road trip. At 15 years old, our tech said these oem pulley dampeners are ticking time bombs and one never knows when they will fail. So I got cold feet and changed it with an ATI. Now that I have a bit more exposure to the ATI, I have really noticed a marked improvement in acceleration with the 15% SC pulley that was already installed. The lack of vibration at idle and especially on acceleration is more than noticeable. I am very pleased with the ATI and the improvements and would never hesitate to recommend it. It was more than well worth the additional cost compared to others on the market—truly money well spent. I did keep the oem crank pulley as a hot spare—one never knows.

 

Thanks for the useful info!

It's this kind of thing--the so-called "ticking time-bomb" harmonic dampener as an example--that makes me wish there were a publicly accessible resource from MINI HQ that detailed failures of these cars, complete with hindsight recommendations for parts replacement intervals. You know, like after assessing the empirical evidence, answering questions like What is the replacement interval for the harmonic dampener? What is the replacement interval for the belt tensioner and idler pulley? I want to replace parts before they fail and cause further damage, but not too early so as to keep things reasonable from an economic and environmental resource standpoint.

 

Keep an eye on the position of the hole/s in the tab protruding from the tensioner. When the hole starts to recede, one or both of two things are happening: 1) The tensioner is getting weaker and/or 2) your serpentine belt is stretching. Considering the labor expended to get there, when replacing the tensioner, go ahead and replace the belt at the same time. You can usually hear and feel if the idler pulley is failing and, due to its relative cost, a no-brainer to replace as well.

 

100% solid advice.

I replace the crank pulley myself in 2 hours time (not rushing anything). I was very suprised to be done so quickly as I never do ("there is always something"). I documented it in my build thread here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4559185

I mentioned it a couple of times, but it felt my Mini was slower after installing the ATI damper, but I was wrong. The sensation was so much smoother (the power delivery as well) that it seemed slower, but the tacho proved me otherwise

 

I have to say the ATI Super Damper was a surprise to me. I installed mine with the engine out and I had a very nice MINI specific nice pulley puller so it went very smoothly.

The surprise was how nice the car ran with the ATI part. My car ran great before the change, but after my engine out project I was kind of confused why it ran so well. None of the many changes I made with the engine out of the car would explain the motor was so smooth. The idle is so smooth I can almost say there is nothing to feel from the motor at idle. (We have a 2005 Toyota Matrix and THAT CAR has an idle you can't feel even at 200k miles, as many such Toyotas have.) The MINI also revs super smoothly now. And of course I don't have to think about the stock part failing which is why I changed it.

Very pricey part so I looked for good alternatives and found none. This part is probably worth every penny.

 

UPDATE: Now that I have had about three weeks of exposure to the ATI Super Damper, I have only one regret...that I didn’t install it 15 years ago. All the improvements I mentioned earlier make this R53 even more pleasurable to motor in. It’s now smoother, quieter, far more responsive and virtually vibration free. It’s quite satisfying to purchase an upgrade and discover it far surpasses your expectations.