E60 530d harmonic balancer

[Heinrich]

my car's harmonic balancer gave up last week and i replaced it with one from imcomex.

now i am experiencing a very bad vibration at about 800-900 rpm.also present at idling but a lot less harsh.

has anybody had similar experiences with aftermarket pulley's?

possible fitment issues maybe?

 

[Nikhil]

Either a deffective dampener pulley or the bolts were not correctly torqued

 

[Solo Man]

Had the same experience with my son's E46 320d. Had a lot of money wasted on different things and eventually found that it was the dampener pulley that was ever so slightly out of round. Replaced with new (old one was less than a year old) aftermarket pulley and noise and vibration was gone. See my post some 18months to two years ago about this. Got both pulleys from Goldwagen. Name of the "smooth" pulley was Cordoba or something.

 

[Heinrich]

Had the same experience with my son's E46 320d. Had a lot of money wasted on different things and eventually found that it was the dampener pulley that was ever so slightly out of round. Replaced with new (old one was less than a year old) aftermarket pulley and noise and vibration was gone. See my post some 18months to two years ago about this. Got both pulleys from Goldwagen. Name of the "smooth" pulley was Cordoba or something.

Thank you Sir.

 

[Heinrich]

Some feedback.

spoke to Imcomex's quality controller this morning regarding the vibration and he brought to my attention that they issued a bulletin stating that in conjunction with harmonic balancer replacement the normal solid alternator pulley should also be replaced with an over run pulley/ clutch pulley.

only saw afterwards that the invoice states that the pulley should be replaced in conjunction with OA Pulley(witch they can not supply)

even though my car never had one, and BMW and goldwagen does not list a pulley for my car, he supplied me with 2 part numbers of witch one "should work"

now i have to remove my alternator pulley , take it as a sample to goldwagen and purchase a clutch pulley to replace it with.
if the fault is still present after this, he would be willing to return/refund.( i hope)

just keep this in the back of your heads for future reference when purchasing form imcomex.

 

[Solo Man]

Heard the same story about the alternator clutch pulley but did not buy the pulley, only the dampener pulley and fitted that. No problems experienced since then.

 

[Heinrich]

Heard the same story about the alternator clutch pulley but did not buy the pulley, only the dampener pulley and fitted that. No problems experienced since then.

i doubt it will solve my problem but it seems this is what i have to do get my money back.

especially since the problem coincides with the new dampener fitment.

 

[Heinrich]

small update.

clutch pulley for alternator is nowhere to be found.
decided to replace both idler and tension-er with the belt while i was in there.
also started the car without the drive belt, same vibration is there.

going to try and check injector trims to rule that out before paying for a new pulley/start a fight to get my money back.

 

[Solo Man]

To me it is too much a coincidence that your vibration started after you replaced the dampener pulley. I cannot tell you how much time we wasted trying to get to the bottom of my son's car (E46 320d auto) vibration. When you came to a stop at a robot the car made this funny rattling sound, (i first thought the gearbox was the culprit), and when you put it in neutral the noise went away but as soon as you put it in drive it returned. As soon as you pull away it goes away again. I had checked and lubricated the pulleys and was on the point of replacing the power steering pump when we decided to replace the 11 month old dampener with a new one. Bingo, noise gone!!!! No more vibrations, nothing. Oh, i remember now i also replaced the tensioner and pulley before i replaced the dampener/harmonic balancer pulley, but that made no difference. I had even replaced the engine and gearbox mountings, also made no difference.

 

[Heinrich]

conclusion to this problem.

i went to goldwagen, bought another crank pulley, replaced it again, and the problem is gone.

returned the pulley to imcomex with my goldwagen invoice, waiting for a refund.

(was not impressed with"did you replace the alternator pulley with a clutch pulley" as i walked through the door to return the faulty crank pulley)

 

[Solo Man]

Very glad you got it sorted so I am not going to say: "I told you so!!!"

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mgwaiting: