Right so just quickly back to the work that this thread is about. So it seemed that the work was done, but it would appear that this was only the end of the first act and we have now started with act 2 of this epic saga.
So today I was on my way back home from giving someone a hand with his BMW and a couple of km's from home, just after pulling away from a stop street, I start hearing a swishing noise from the engine bay, and because I did the belts just a couple of days before I immediately start thinking than on of the belt might have come off. So as quickly as I can a pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine and opened the bonnet to investigate. And this is what I found: (The pics where taken after I had gotten home and opened things up a bit to take photos)
The belt that drives the aircon had was starting to fall to pieces, this just a couple of days after getting and fitting it:
So I decided that as this belt was is not crucial to the functioning of the car and because I was so close to home to just get the car home. And after driving a bit I got that tell-tale smell of coolant for a bit then it went away then I got it again. This started to worry me. So a minute or so later I get home and look at the front of the car and see spots of liquid underneath my bumper I smell a bit of it and I instantly know that it is coolant. Then I looked behind the car are there was a large stripe of coolant in the road and the drive were I had just driven. So I got the car parked as quickly as possible.
So with the car parked I investigated the problem further, and I found this:
One of the long stands that came loose of the belt had cut a hole in the rubber hose right next to it. And there my car was standing, loosing all the new coolant that I had put in just a couple of days earlier. Some pics of this sad sight:
I looked at the belt from every angle and it seems like it was perfectly fitted, not that there is really any other way of fitting it, due to the grooves you can be sure it is aligned. Also the belt stayed on so that would also seem to be that is was on properly. I felt around the area that the belt has to move in for anything that might have damaged the belt, but there is nothing. Then again I did all this checks when I fitted the belt. So I am certain the problem was with the belt itself.
The thing that catches me about this is that the belt had not even driven a real load since I had put it on since there is not really a reason to use the aircon, yet it still fell to pieces, this kind make you wonder about how good BMW's quality control is really.
At least I seem to have found a possible cause for why the belt failed so quickly (thanks to some inputs and things my mom noticed when she looked at the belt). It seems like the belt is constructed by two layers of rubber and sandwiched between this rubber is a rope-like clothy material. On the side of the belt that is not damaged you can see that the "rope" material is partially exposed, but not only that you can feel a small bit, like the tip of this "rope" sticking out, so if this tip gets torn out a little it could be enough for bits of the rubber starting to loosen and tear of like what happened on the other side of the belt. This is of course just speculation.
Either way I will be taking the belt back to the dealer to get a replacement or my money back, and hopefully I can get the damaged pipe out of them as well. But knowing BMW they will probably fight this tooth and nail, but we'll see.
I have to say I am not a happy camper
.
