Solo Man
Well-known member
A friends car recently started making aircon pump noises and eventually the fanbelt broke. As i usually service his car he called me telling me what happened. I replied that i think the dampener pulley is the problem but after getting more info it seemed that the aircon pump had failed. He had that replaced and shortly afterwards found the dampener pulley breaking off forunately without damaging anything. He had that replaced at a local garage in his town and then the problems started all over again. Shortly after the pulley was replaced he noticed a vibration on the car. Took it to the same garage and they diagnosed a failed propshaft. Had that removed and rebalanced/repaired (not sure what they did but cost him a few thousand rand) and still the same vibration on the car. The garage then replaced pulleys as well as the tensioner pulley. Still no better. He then called me again in desperation. After hearing his story i told him that his problem was the dampener pulley and that he should replace the one they had fitted in the beginning. Must also mention that the car makes a loud racket when idling and driving off. This is similar to the sound my son's E46 328i made shortly after (about six months) a garage had fitted a dampener pulley to his car. After i also replaced gearbox mountings, pulleys, tensioner as well as nearly replacing he power steering pump, we had the garage that fitted the original damperner pulley replace it with a new one. Problem solved! My son's car made such a racket when idling that it was embarrassing.
