Few nights ago my belt began to squeek and i smelled the burned rubber. Opened hood and looked at the belt and half of it,on the ungrouved side has been worn down like 2/16". Its exactly half thr brlt in a straight line. Now im looking at the idler pulley and see that its two sections. Is it a two piece pulley? Could it be that rear part is dragging and burning the belt? Any other ideas? Thanks!!

 

Could be that the idler pulley is bad, but what goes wrong is the bearing in the middle of it. Mine was bad, but did not cause odd wear like you are seeing. Pull the fender liner & take a close look at things. If your MINI has a lot of miles budget for tensioner, idler, crank damper & belt.

 

Yes, the pulley is two pieces. I agree with the above poster. Chances are you need to replace the tensioner. Pull the belt off and spin the tensioner pulley by hand. You'll probably see some weird things going on.