330d crank pulley failure

[fismail]

Well. It finally broke. Not majorly but then again a rather expensive out of motorplan bill.

On 30/12/2009 after I started it I smelt rubber burning. Battery/alternator light came on and power steering was non-existant. I switched the aircon off and after a few seconds power steering was returned to normal and battery/alternator light went off.

Drove the car to a mechanic , put it on the lift and checked the aircon compressor which was way hotter than the rest of the components. Removed the aircon unit. No gas was present in it and a possible bearing failure was suspected and one can't get new parts / reconditioned parts at this time of the year.

Brought the car home and noticed the power steering went heavy for a few seconds and also felt a tug and heard a belt rubbing against something.

Also to remove the aircon we had to remove the turbo boost pipes , turbo has a nice bit of oil leaking at the seals from the pipes (which would explain the topup oil of 1 litre that I had to put in at 118000 kays.

Mileage is now at 124000 kays. New turbo is R25000. The whistling from the turbo has been there since 64000 kays when I bought the car from Paarlberg (it was on its second turbo as the 1st one was replaced due to a "funny noise" as mentioned on the cars motorplan history report that I pulled on the car when making arrangements to buy it.

On 31/12/2009 I took the car back to the workshop. Explained the problem with the now more frequent power steering loss/heaviness.

Removed the power steering belt , saw nothing wrong. We then looked at the crank pulley which was very hot. After letting it cool down we detected that the pulley is fucked. This would explain the loss of power steering and the alternator/battery light coming on occasionally.

New pulley from the agents is R7500 ex VAT , no stock from BMW dealers. Looking for 2nd hand ones next week as most of the usual places are closed.

The only way to get out of this car considering its accident damage last year is to do it the dishonest way and drive it into a wall which is out of the question as I left it at the workshop so that they can hunt for parts for me in next year 2010.

R25000 - Turbo
R7500 - crank pulley
R2500 - recon the aircon unit and / or
R8000 - replace the aircon unit

Nice bill for the new year :twisted:

To replace the car with facelift E90 with the same spec a few thousands over R500k.

Before this drama it gave bloody good service mechanically so I don't have any regrets buying the car as I got driveability.

 

[zaleonardz]

I just had a turbo done on my 730d under motor plan and that was 15k

 

[Ricky318i]

Fismail: Any news on the 330d?

 

[fismail]

Yes.

Aircon bloke called me , there is nothing wrong with the compressor so he will simply charge me for a regas.

New pulley is R8500 at agents.
Managed to get a newish one for R4300 and then will stick on aircon pump and have it regassed.

I may as well have them do a 120000 kay service as well since the car is already on 124000 kays.

See part number 1 on the diagram.

No. Description Supplement Qty From Up To Part Number Price Notes
01 Vibration damper 1 11237793593 $647.82
02 Torx bolt M10X86 4 11232247932 $2.87
03 Crankshaft sprocket 1 11217788982 $60.77
04 WOODRUFF KEY 5X6,5 1 07119951480 $0.88

Fismail: Any news on the 330d?

 

[zaleonardz]

I used to work for Baisch engineering in Spartan, we made OEM pulley's amoung other things

Cost price to GM I think was 80 to 120 bucks each about 4 years ago...

Makes you wonder...

 

[fismail]

Total bill including diesel oil change , diesel filter change , pollen filter change (since the car was overdue by 4000 kays for its 120000 kay service plus new pulley plus labour - R6600.

 

[Ricky318i]

doesn't sound too exorbitant

 

[fismail]

Its not.

Problem is I don't have a choice and had to get it repaired. Pointless in running a motor minus aircon , power steering , cooling , and other peripherals as then the car would be undriveable.

FWIW the power steering on 17's on 225/45/17 pumped to 2.6 bar all around and the car lowered by 35mm is not THAT hard.

A wee bit heavier than a Citi Golf on 17's :thinker:

doesn't sound too exorbitant

 

[Hellas]

I don't know if the 320d and 330d pulley differ, but a colleague found a secondhand one for his 320d for R1500 last year. In the same time another friend got one from the dealers for R4500 IIRC.

 

[Ricky318i]

But tell me: why does the pulley for these diesel engines seem to be a problematic item and for petrol engines not?

Fismail: what was the explanation from your mechanic, after a postmortem, for the exsessive wear on your pulley? :thinking:

 

[Hellas]

Torque? :thinking:

 

[Ricky318i]

maybe :?

 

[fismail]

Wear & tear.

I suspect its torque , the 330d 2nd generation is 150kw/410nm and they have seen 5 of these motors break the pulley.

See pics.

Front of pulley , this faces the radiator and is what you would see if you were to remove the 1st fan to take the pulley off.
Note the nice tears in the rubber face.

Rear of pulley , this has a nice rubber backing that was causing the burning smell.

Side view of pulley , the gap you see if the amount of "flex" on it and with the movement of the crank caused everything to go haywire w.r.t alternator not moving , power steering being intermittent and the obvious initial (what I thought was an aircon fault)

maybe :?

 

[Ricky318i]

I was shocked to see the mechanical failure that has occured in this part. I believe that no amount of normal or spirited driving could induce such an amount of Mechanical stress that would nearly disintergrate a part that is (supposedly) designed to handle it.

I would assume that maybe the previous owner maight have driven that poor car so hard that the pulley gave in!

Hope after all that is fixed, you'll have many more years of inunterrupted motoring!

 

[Hellas]

Not really, Ricky. My friend bought his 320d from a lady that was a matron at a hospital and I don't rate them spirited drivers(My aunt was a matron and she drives a 160i Run-X...). His pulley broke within a year of getting the car.

 

[Ricky318i]

hmmm... :thinking: then it might be a high wear item intrinsic to the diesel engines. TBO i have never heard of this and in my opinion: the old 1999 - 2001 M47 was a far more reliable motor than the higher powered M47N. But i digress.

Just a pity the car is out of Motorplan - then you should've put up a scene at the dealership.

 

[Hellas]

It's maybe one of those issues that BMW are 'still getting right'. Remember how the pre-facelift 320diesels went through gearboxes, swallowed flaps and chewed through their turbos?

 

[Ricky318i]

In actual fact: it was the Facelift 2002 - 2003 engines that ate turbo's. Something happened 2004 onwards till 2005 when they became more reliable. Everyone loves those diesels, but i think they were too fast for their own good. People over revved them and it ended disasterously with blown turbo's and intercoolers.
I say this cuz my friend is a BMW mechanic in Vanderbijlpark that sees these cars every day at his shop. all for the same problems.

 

[Andy1GP]

Bumping a good 'ol thread just to see if there are any newcomers that can benefit or contribute.

---

Oh and it seems this car was a E46 330d probably around 2004 model

 

[Solo Man]

Slightly off topic. I am of the opinion that the turbo failures of the past was due to the oil seperator not serviced/changed which caused the turbo to not get enough oil and that BMW eventually realized that that was the problem and that is why they now change them every third service. I have changed the loo type seperator with the later type without the filters on both my 530d and X5 3ld and when i replaced the turbo on my 530d E39 at 226k kms it had no discerneble wear on the turbo bearing apart from the small piece that had broken off one of the exhaust vanes.