Holy Mother of God. A Pulley tensioner and oil filter housing story

[Mtnman]

So, i was on my merry way to go pick up my son from daycare yesterday. At a stoplight, i felt a strange dip in the rpms. it was brief. The light turned green and i got about 100ft before my battery light came on. I immediately pulled into a shopping center and parked the car. I opened the hood to find the main serpentine belt was a complete mess, and something metal and cylindrical was hanging on the belt below the fan. Crap. I got a ride home and got back to the car today. Took it to my Brothers house which was about 1/2 mile away. During lunch today, i came to his house and took off the intake and radiator fan. Sitting on the splashguard was my tensionser pully. it had sheered off. One bolt was missing, but the threads were still in the hole where the bolt sheered off. Well, that sucks, but i can figure out how to drill that out. I pull the tnesioner pulley out of the car and just about pooped my pants. The other bolt that holds the tensioner pully onto the car was still attached to the pulley, and it still had a piece of metal attached to it. Holy Mother of God. To me, it looked like this was attached to frame or engine block, which meant a major repair bill.



Took the part to BMW Asheville where I have made friends with one of the techs named George. George looked at the part, and his first reaction was "Oh shit". Very similar to my reaction. Luckily, we took the part over to the computer and looked some things up. Turns out, the tensioner pulley is attached to the oil filter housing. Whew. Well, oil filter housing is $310 from BMW. (but hey, it includes new gasket!) He and the Parts guy both know that i work on my own car, and advised that i go to advanced auto to get the pulley tensioner. They said if they did it, it was a mandatory upgrade to the hydrolic one. That saved me some cash too. Luckily, i just changed my oil last week, so that oil is going to have to be removed and replaced with this repair. Figures.

Ill Try to post pics of the repair if I can keep my wits about me putting this in. Luckily, I have my son all weekend next weekend, so I may have to take a say off work to finish this next week. Oh happy happy joy joy.

/rant.

[zj96sc]

Oh wow, that would've been such a nightmare.

I'd recommend you get INA brand pulleys and tensioners and also do the hydraulic upgrade. ECS, Pelican, Tischer, bmwpartstore can all get you the parts at good cost.

[Crickett]

Wow, that sucks! I wonder how it failed like that; what gave up to cause such carnage?!

Glad to hear that the fix isn't astronomical & can be DIY'd. Good luck!

[Mtnman]

Exactly. Somehow something seized to either strain the tensioner, or kicked the belt off and that caused the strain. I wont know until I put it all back together and see if something else has failed too. Ill make sure to hand turn all the pulleys while the belts are off before I put it back together. Even knowing the fix to the current problem doesn't assure me I found the root cause. Hope I find it before it goes back together, or ill have a few days worth of diys to share.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

[Johnmadd]

Damn, crazy.

[GT172I]

It'll be fine....






kidding, kidding. That's ridiculous especially to happen just sitting at idle

[az3579]

Man, you are definitely gifted to be able to fix this yourself. I can easily see a repair bill over $600 in labor alone. With parts, over a grand.
I wish you the best when you put it back together; hopefully you'll find the cause.

[RVAzhp]

that is insane...

[ryankokesh]

Holy crap.

I did the hydraulic conversion last year, and it really wasn't bad. I wasn't in this situation though

[kayger12]

Damn. Sorry to hear, David.

Wish I was closer. I'd come to turn the wrenches with you (and, of course, bring the beer).