Hello all, my first visit here. I understand that you guys know your stuff. We share a wonderful engine............I'm the owner of a 2003 c32. Here's my issue/question.

Several weeks ago upon start up my belt sounded like it was squealing a bit. After a few mins it would stop. I checked and found what appeared to be the belt rolling off of the tension pulley. Here is a picture of what I found:

IMG_0636.jpg

The belt, idler and tension pulley were all replaced w/ parts from the stealer based on cars VIN.

Welp, the tension pulley is doing the same thing, it seems to be about 3/8ths "in" too far. The belt is hanging off the front a bit, just like the first photo. Mind you the belt lines up perfectly and tracks perfectly on all other pulleys and it's not stressed, making noises, etc.

I'm at a loss............were old and new parts wrong? Crank does not appear to be walking as it would effect the belt as it rides on other pulleys. I have no idea what's going on here, any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

Marc

 

I might be stretching here but I seem to remember there is a shim/washer on one of the pullies either an idler or tensioner. I know someone will correct me if this information is wrong. Best I can do, sorry.

 

The only shim I've heard about is on the SC pully.

 

Is the pulley turning? Are is the belt just slipping around pulley? the pulley on mine is very shiny yours appears to have rust on it as if it is not turning. Danny

 

my thoughts exactly. that pulley appears to be seized and the belt is walking off as it turns across it

 

Thats the old pulley assembly.
The tensioner pulley looks as close as my one to the body, I'd say that the belt is not in line for some reason. If you put a straight edge over the four edges of the belt up and down, in line with the tensioner pulley I think you will see they are not in line. They do not look in line in the photo. Maybe it's my eyes.

 

Yes, tension pulley was spinning fine when that picture was taken (although it needed to be replaced).

The new tension pulley is brand new, spins freely but is still in that same position.....where the belt is hanging over towards the front of the car.

It's not a bearing/free spinning issue.........for some reason both before (old pulley pictured) and after (new pulley)......it's just too far back when compared to all other pulleys. Really strange.

 

That is definetly whacky.... I could see a little overlap but your's is bad... I can't imagine that helping the belt.... but everything else looks lined up fine and if the old one never gave you any trouble it may be okay.....

I would yank that pulley off and make a shim to put under it to line it up properly.....

 

The belt looks too far forward to the power steering pulley to me.

 

I had the same problem when I fitted an aftermarket idler pulley, I found a metric spring washer (M16 or M20 I think) was just about the correct I/D to use as a spacer, ground a little from the I/D, and it fit perfectly to pull the pulley out from the block.

 

It would good to see a picture of both sides at the same time from a angle that we can see all the pulleys looks like the belt is running off from the pulley on the left that's not in the picture ?

 

after looking at it again I believe you may be right it does look 1 rib too much to the front.

 

Take off the belt and see if the water pump bearings are sloppy.

 

Good morning. Thanks for the reviews/suggestions so far. Here is a video I just took of the car running and how the belt is running on the pulleys. From what I can see the belt is aligned correctly on all but the tensioner pulley (really off) and it's also slightly forward on the water pump pulley. I'm starting to think that the suggestion of checking the water pump bearing might be a good one. It being off a little could be pushing it way off on the tensioner pulley. Check out the video, thoughts? Thanks Guys.


IMG_0786.mp4 video by Volvapimp - Photobucket

 

From watching the video, my vote is the crankshaft pulley has slipped forward about 1/4 - 3/8 "
I don't see any belt warpage between the CS pulley and the idler pulley.

But again, I could be wrong ...........

 

Is that a common issue w/ these engines? Mine is low miles for a 2003......only 47K.

 

LOL! It would FLY off, no way.

 

If you say so. I don't have a SRT6 so I am certainly no expert.

Just seems kinda funny that the belt is running forward on the water pump pulley and the tension pulley, but not on the SC pulley.

Those are the two where the flat side of the belt runs, without v-grooves to align it.

 

I'm wondering if the tentioner is actually sitting straight looks like it could be crooked

 

I don't have an SRT either, but I viewed your pic and video. My first thought is that the crank pulley has moved forward. Look at the pulley just to the left of the crank pulley. It appears it is set back further than the crank pulley. It seems more visible in the video.

I would closely check out the crank pulley before going any further.

Check this pic, you can see that the two pulleys in the yellow square are clearly not on the same plane.



James