C5 had a bit of a stomach ache last night.

"PartyPooper2012" (PartyPooper2012)
06/30/2020 at 05:08 • Filed to: None

Ate a bad pulley. Got bloated. Belt no longer fit. Had high temperature. Vomited some coolant.

Dr PartyPooper gave her some rest while getting some medicine - some pulley p ills, Some stretchy work out belt and some coolant syrup.

Perked right up after taking all 3

DISCUSSION (21)

pip bip - choose Corrour > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 05:30

how on earth did it do that?

PartyPooper2012 > pip bip - choose Corrour
06/30/2020 at 05:36

That pulley is plastic and was very old . I am guessing it cracked and slipped the belt a bit enough to wear it down...

vondon302 > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 06:17

Got to watch the expiration date on those plastic bits.

At least she didn't get diarrhea from it.

PartyPooper2012 > vondon302
06/30/2020 at 06:30

Apparently the pulley expired...yesterday.

I pulled over right quick to make sure that didn’t happen, but I also have not yet checked condition of oil. The gauge was climbing as I was already stopped with engine shut off.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 06:47

Is it because that was brittle or was it balancer wobble?

PartyPooper2012 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
06/30/2020 at 06:58

I guess I will never know.

I was driving. It started to rain. I closed the windows and turned AC on. Few squeals. I turned AC off. Squeals stopped... then pop. Not sure what that was but car is still ok. No check engine lights... Drove a bit more and saw water temp climbing. Pulled over. Shut the engine off. Found pulley half eaten. Belt jammed in other pulleys. Waited for it to cool off a bit. Drove off a highway onto a parking lot. Got replacement parts. All working ok again.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 07:46

Welp :(

I just replaced my pulley last Thursday.... I'm glad that I did that now.

RacinBob > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 08:00

That’s an idler pulle y. Does it still rotate?

PartyPooper2012 > RacinBob
06/30/2020 at 08:04

That’s a tension pulley. It did rotate, but the edges of the pulley were broken. I don’t know if that was the cause of failure or broke because of the failure.

Pulley spun semi OK. It was rubbing up against the metal as it went around, but like I said, edges were broken so it’s hard to tell which failed first.

PartyPooper2012 > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
06/30/2020 at 08:09

oddly, the old pulley was still spinning... wasn’t completely seized up. Edges were rubbing against metal housing, but I don’t know if the edges broke because of failure or caused the failure.

Easy fix though.

Wasn’t fun fixing car in a downpour in a hotel parking lot while bunch of electric conduit contractors waiting to start work sitting in trucks watching ya, but easy fix.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 08:18

Seems like the plastic just got brittle to me...

PartyPooper2012 > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
06/30/2020 at 08:20

Yeah. Probably that’s what happened.

I did turn on AC right before that happened. I wonder if compressor made it jump or jammed the belt temporarily. I don’t know. We’ll never know.

New pulley and belt is on. Added coolant. Shrugged it off as an easy repair. Onwards

RacinBob > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 08:24

To me it looked like it locked and the belt which was still driven melted it down. I would think that had it just broken, it would have still rotated and made a heck of a racket being a “square” pulley.

PartyPooper2012 > RacinBob
06/30/2020 at 08:27

Yeah. I have seen this on a Benz before. Pulley locked up completely. Couldn’t spin it. That made sense to me.

This... pulley still spun somewhat freely considering how much tension there is from the belt - did not make sense.

Like I said, just before that I turned on AC. I am guessing something was up with a compressor. Maybe it wasn’t spinning like it should... but then it would make sense for the belt to wear through around the compressor. Not the tension pulley.

Whatever. I think i need to setup a security camera around the belt area to see what the hell is happening under there.

TheRealBicycleBuck > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 08:58

It was raining? Well, there’s your problem! GREMLINS!

Kinja'd!!!

Zaphod's Heart of Gold > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 09:58

Fortunate that it still spun. My buddy had an idler lock up on his car and it stopped the whole engine dead. Car would not even try to turn over. I met up with him, pulled the belt and it fired right up. Crazy how much torque that seized bearing had

PartyPooper2012 > Zaphod's Heart of Gold
06/30/2020 at 10:00

wow. Thats surprising . My buddy’s benz did something like that... but it shre ded the belt. Replaced belt and pulley on his and it was fine.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 11:06

Whoever invented plastic pulleys can just go die

PartyPooper2012 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
06/30/2020 at 11:09

Weight reduction...so you can go faster.... to the hotel parking lot where you will be spending lots of time wrenching on replacing plastic pulley.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > PartyPooper2012
06/30/2020 at 16:09

Check your harmonic balancer, they are a super common failure. You should be able to see it wobble if it’s bad.

PartyPooper2012 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
06/30/2020 at 18:34

Thanks. On my list of things to check, but after I fixed it, it’s running fine so I’ll look at it in a bit.