My '03 Cooper S recently started developing a whine in the front of the car. I knew that the wine was coming from one of the pulleys that run the serpentine but wasn't sure which one. I was hoping that it was simply the tensioner or the idler! Turns out the mechanic I took it into today said that the crankshaft pulley is starting to fail.

This guy is wanting to charge me nearly $1000 to replace this pulley, parts included. I was expecting about half that! What are your experiences with having this pulley replaced? He also continued to tell me that the tensioner pulley could be going bad, but he couldn't really tell over the noise of the crankshaft pulley - which at minimum would cost me another $700 to fix. Are these costs ridiculous or reasonable?

 

You could do this yourself with and save a bundle, ATI damper is about 350 from WAY

 

I would, but I am away at college and don't have any tools here. All of my tools are 500 miles away and won't be available to me until Easter - I am not sure that I trust the pulley to last that long, not to mention the 500 mile trip itself.

 

I have a used OE pulley for sale from my 2004 MCS. I am in Northern Virginia. I took it off simply to replace it with an ATI, not because there was anything wrong with it. Make me an offer and its yours.

 

I'm interested! I tried to send you a message but I'm getting a notification saying that the message quota is maxed out.

 

I cleared out some space; you can contact me now.

 

A shop should charge no more than 2.5 to 3 hours of labor for that work. Oh, and get yourself a belt while you're at it.

 

I'll throw in a used belt. As with all R53, I recommend a tensioner stop.

 

shop around

I've seen this done for much less ....

 

I agree; I watched Way do it in probably less than 45 minutes.

 

I'm getting another opinion/estimate tomorrow morning. Hoping for the best!

 

Wow, for that kind of money you could bring it down to us and we'd have you out the door with a new ATI damper for less than $600.

Either way don't put a stock pulley back on it. Go with the ATI Damper.
http://waymotorworks.com/super-dampe...ulley-r53.html