I am sick and tired of the stupid little damper which cannot be bought seperately from the tensioner mechanism.

The rubber bushings do not last and I have tried 2 sets of Powerflex bushes which disintegrated within 500 miles. I have replaced the whole tensioner once but the damper bushes do not even last 20k miles.

Even when new the dampers are not highly pressurised and when it goes bad nothing really happens - the belt still runs under tension.

Question - what harm will it do to just take the rattling damper out completely? It is a stupid design and it really does not seem to do much.

 

For what it's worth, the Powerflex bushings have a lifetime warranty. They did have a small batch that were porous and failed within short periods of time, but that was years ago.

Are you replacing the tensioner with a quality unit such as OEM, INA, Gates?

 

Short history: powerflex bushes installed 28k miles Mar 2010, broke up 600 miles. New OEM tensioner assy fitted Jun 2010 29600 miles. Powerflex replaced bushes under warranty later in 2010 but I only used 1 of the bushes in Jun 2014 43600 miles when the 2nd damper's lower bush broke up, Powerflex again did not last 600 miles. Now at 48k miles, put a home made nylon bush in at one end, other end still OEM bush which is holding up.
I do not know if anyone is getting high mileage with the PF bushes. Their LCA bushes are fantastic!
My tensioner & belt are in excellent condition. Just the frustration with damper bushes. I am in South Africa with no local PF agent so warranty replacement is not easy. Previous replacement was done when I was per chance in the States on a business trip

 

The solution is Way's DELRIN bushings.

 

Thanks, order placed!