Serpentine Belt goes bad too soon.

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 14:49:44 GMT, "Sam Nickaby"
> wrote:

>"Huw" > wrote in message ...
>> "Jack" > wrote in message ...
>
>> >I see on the Car Talk website that someone wrote in with a complaint
>> >similar to yours.
>> > There conclusion was that the most likely culprit was the crankshaft
>> > vibration damper (which has been referred to as the harmonic balancer in
>> > this thread). I would think that if yours were failing to the point of
>> > causing belt failure that you would be able to see it wobble with the
>> > engine running.
>> >
>> I have had several of these damned things fail over the years and there was
>> never any obvious sign apart from throwing belts.
>
>I believe so. Today, I ran the motor with the belt off. There are no signs
>of wobble. I was tempted to measure the crank pulley with a dial indicator
>and check the pulleys/idlers plane-parallel to each other but it looks tough.
>All the other pulley spin without effort. The tensioner is very nice and tight.
>Everything looks nice and clean.
>
>I never buy belts from the same retailer once they fail. For the sake
>of documentation, I'd snap a photo of the belts, you could see it here.
>http://www.freewebs.com/nickaby/belts.jpg Picture A is a belt
>from alloembmwparts.com, AKA thepartsbin.com, which I had been
>fooled by their oem name. This belt shows signs of cracking in a
>couple weeks, which eventually self destructs. Picture B (not high-
>resolution image) is a pretty good belt, no signs of cracking even
>after a year, except for a section missing. Good retailer, in fact I
>got many aftermarket rubber parts from www.europartsdirect.com
>and pretty satisfied.

Those cracks...crap rubber. Not able to take the tight radius of the
idler pulleys without coming apart. IOW, no elasticity left in them.

As a test, I =bet= you can bend that belt with your hands, in your
hands, away from the groves, and watch it CRACK right in front of your
eyes.

Lg

Huw wrote:
> "Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>In article >,
>> Huw > wrote:
>>
>>>"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
...
>>>
>>>>In article . com>,
>>>> N8N > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>It has been years since I've owned a Bimmer but I would think that a
>>>>>4-cyl. would be far more likely to have a harmonic balancer than a 6,
>>>>>because of the 6-cyl. engine's better inherent balance.
>>>>
>>>>Sixes also have a harmonic balancer.
>>>>
>>
>>>I think you need to appreciate the difference between dynamic and
>>>harmonic balancers.
>>
>>Since you appear to be replying to me, Huw, I'm well aware of the
>>difference.
>>
>
>
> I have not seen fours with harmonic balancers, only dynamic ones. I haven't
> looked that hard I must admit.
>
> Huw
>
>

Most of them do have them (M40, M42, M43, M44, maybe others). They are
called "Vibration Dampers" in the parts lists.

--
-Fred W

Forgive me if I am repeating someone but -

Do you drive the car hard? Redline or high RPM's?
Do you have a clutch fan? Have you verified that it disengages
properly?

Blake

"Blake Dodson" > wrote in message ups.com...

> Forgive me if I am repeating someone but -
> Do you have a clutch fan? <no clutch fan>
> Do you drive the car hard? Redline or high RPM's?

Nope. Wife drives car. M44, 4-cyl engine is smooth at all rpm.

60% highway - 32-MPG
40% city - 29-MPG