2004 330d crankshaft harmonic pulley replacement

[bullet24]

Hi Guys,


I recently purchased a well used 2004 e46 330d in manual, with some 305 000km on it, will do a separate thread on that another day.
I am in the process of sorting out all the years of neglect etc and part of that is to replace the crankshaft harmonic pulley as there is some really bad noises caused by the belt slap when idling. I have been to my mechanic and he is fairly positive that is the source of the belt slap, but he also says that going any aftermarket route will be a waste and the best is to go for the mucho's expensive BMW original.
Does anybody here have experience and or a good alternative to the original that can be used? Same goes for the viscous fan, at the moment it is running all the time and again I am advised to source an original.


Thanks in advance for your feedback.


PS: Good to be back after a couple of years of not having a BMW, but then we start talking BMW part prices again and the feeling quickly goes away...

 

[Kish2604]

i have seen both the GW and the OEM only last 100k km on ave before it starts to deteriorate. I would also replace the idler and tensioner pulleys as well, at the same time, They were not badly priced at GW at approx R350 each, this is for the pulley and not the entire tensioner mechanism.

While your in there, please pull the viscous fan and replace the oil in mechanism, oil is avail from Toyota @ R250 a bottle. With that kind of mileage the oil in the viscous mechanism will be all dried up.

 

[Solo Man]

I have to agree with Kish regarding the pulleys from Goldwagen. If you go back and read my posts on the pulley i had to replace on my son's car (2001 E46 320d) a few years back you will find all the info there. I have done the oil change in the viscous fan but would rather buy a new one. Bought a aftermarket one from some one that advertised them (this was about 10 or 12 years ago) but it worked well and was not too expensive (meaning it was worth buying aftermarket rather than OEM). Would also remove the swirl flaps asap as they are prone to break and get ingested into the engine with catastrophic results. Disable the egr at the same time after cleaning it thoroughly. All the info how to do it is on the internet.

 

[bullet24]

Thanks Solo & Kish, so going for the GW harmonic crank pully for half the price of the OEM does not mean it will only last 30 or so thousand km's if I understand you correct.

Will most certainly do the idler and tensioner pulleys while we are busy there.

The car is going in on Monday for a list of things, and I have the EGR delete kit and swirlflaps will come out next week yes. Biggest bit of work will be to get to the exhaust manifold as it has a crack in it that the guys from Powerflow were not able to get to from the bottom, I had the car's cat removed by them

 

[Solo Man]

Has your car the cast iron or double skinned steel manifold. If it is the latter your best bet will be to get a new cast iron manifold from the UK. I got one for my ex X5 but never got round to replacing it and eventually sold it to some one on the Forum. Cannot remember what i paid but i think it was in the region of R2k. (Long time ago!!) I had my old manifold welded up but because it is double skinned it is difficult to get all the cracks welded. I smelled like it was still leaking there but could have been one of the injectors leaking and making a goo on the injector which could have caused the smell and smoke.

 

[rodga]

I think I also need to do my pulleys next. But suspension is first.

Please add the prices when u get parts so I can start budgeting lol

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[bullet24]

Has your car the cast iron or double skinned steel manifold. If it is the latter your best bet will be to get a new cast iron manifold from the UK. I got one for my ex X5 but never got round to replacing it and eventually sold it to some one on the Forum. Cannot remember what i paid but i think it was in the region of R2k. (Long time ago!!) I had my old manifold welded up but because it is double skinned it is difficult to get all the cracks welded. I smelled like it was still leaking there but could have been one of the injectors leaking and making a goo on the injector which could have caused the smell and smoke.

I believe mine has the cast iron on at the moment as the guys from Powerflow were able to get some of the cracks from the bottom.
But will need to get an update from the shop as the car was dropped off last week for the fairly large undertaking of getting the manifold off.

I got a price on a new cast iron one from the UK, about R3200 but holding off on that for now until I get verdict back from APS.

Thanks

 

[bullet24]

I think I also need to do my pulleys next. But suspension is first.

Please add the prices when u get parts so I can start budgeting lol

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Out of interest - what suspension are you looking at?

I might have 4 brand new Monroe shocks if you keen - I am still deciding if I should put them on or go for coilies, and then what coilies as price do matter and the BC's I had before is now half the cars worth...

 

[rodga]

Out of interest - what suspension are you looking at?

I might have 4 brand new Monroe shocks if you keen - I am still deciding if I should put them on or go for coilies, and then what coilies as price do matter and the BC's I had before is now half the cars worth...

I'm currently running eibach Pro kit with bilstein b8's which are serviceable. But the entire suspension is tired so will be getting them serviced soon and some of the rubber stuff refreshed.

Control arms seems to be in decent shape though, so mainly the smaller stuff around there.

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