rabney72

I wish I would have seen this earlier, is it a common replace item?....Although I did spin the pully and it was fine, no noise.

Anyway, last night I put on a new alternator, idler pulley, and tensioner pulley. With a simple torx t-50 bit with a .15" hole drilled (temper resistant torx screw on the tensioner pulley) in the center, the tensioner pulley can be removed from the bracket with out having to pull the compressor and intake to take the entire bracket off.

The sound is GONE!!!!

I would have liked to replace only one at a time to find the actual source of the problem but I wasn't going to do the work for a third time, as I just did an AC compressor job a few weeks ago.

Anyway, thanks for all the diagnosis help guys.

I recommend doing this to whoever has this wicked metal, screeching, clanking sound.
I ended up spending $200 on a german made bosch alternator, 28$ on the MB idler pulley, and $80 on the tensioner bracket assembly (although, I only used the pulley, so I'm going to try and match it up and put another one back on and then take it back)

Robert

Glyn M Ruck

If you gave the water pump pulley a twirl & it was quiet then you are good to go. Some have plastic impellers & some metal & I've seen them come right off the shaft on M111 & M271 engines. But you would hear it.

Pleased the noise is gone. Wish we knew the culprit.

e24kgold

+1...HAd my water pump replaced at the same time

DNAC230

It appears I have this same issue with my 2002 C230 Coupe.

Brought it to the dealership today and they quoted me $900 to replace the water pump, thermostat & gasket.

And another $900 to replace the Pulley tensioner, pullies, tensioner shock & belts.

oh boy...

I'm gonna take it to my indy and have them service it.

saespyder

I don't have anything to add here, but this thread is impressive. You guys can troubleshoot with the best of them.

pablom617

I just had my Idler, Tensioner and belt replaced by an Indy shop and it cost me 500 bucks. The the tensioner pulley cost 270!!

pcy

Belt Tensioner pulley is not sold separately. Entire tensioner along with the pulley is around $115 on RMeuropean dot com. Slightly higher on AutohausAZ dot com. On M112 engine and M272 engine, replacing the tensioner is not that hard. I am not sure about other engines.

pablom617

Yeah... I got ripped for the list price.

You need a special torx tool for the tensioner...no?

rabney72

Yes you need a tamper t-50 torx (with a center hole). And you can get the tensioner pulley by itself at the dealer for 40$, it's named tensioner pulley kit...or something like that... An the idler is cheaper

rabney72

So in short, yes it is sold separately, just gotta go through the dealer

pablom617

That just makes my head hurt. Thanks for the info. Desperation gets the best of you in these situations.

pcy

Do you happen to have the part number for that tensioner pulley kit?

rabney72

yes, the reciept shows 271 200 05 70....and dang, I paid 48.50$ but thats still better than the 90 for the complete tensioner assembly.

pcy

I looked up on EPC with that part number. It's a belt tensioner "parts kit" available for M271 engine only. That kit is not available for M112 or M272 engines :-(

rabney72

what other motors are those?

I assume m271 is 1.8lkompressor b/c that's what I have

Glyn M Ruck

M271 is your motor - 112 etc are the 3 valve V6 engines.

seagel1000

Just wanted to add to this. Rob, I fixed my idle issue I mentioned to you not long ago. Replaced the TB from another m271 1.8l with 56K miles. Cleaned it thoroughly and my rough idling and slight sluggish acceleration at take off is completely gone! The alternator and the water pump did definitely help along with replacing the tensioner and idler pulley. All in all, thanks for all your guys DIY posts, information and suggestions. Who could ask for more. Cheers!

-Chris

rabney72

Great, so cleaning(or replacing ) the tb helped the idle? I can see it fixing the slight acceleration hesitation... Hmmm is it fly by wire? I would assume a gunked up idle air controller motor would be more a reason for idle roughness (which I also have and assumed it's time for a tune up, 70k)

Maybe I'll check out the tb and see if I can attempt my issue..

Glad your is working well

Rob

seagel1000

Yes. If cleaning it does not resolve the issue, it is likely the TB Actuator (electronic part of the TB that I guess regulates the flap/plate). Mines was making noise on having the Key in position 2 in the ignition. I can hear a mad "spark" type of a noise coming from it when I had the hood open. That issue led me to believe that my current TB was toast electronic wise. Not to mention when I took It off yesterday there was a nice pencil size stream of oil traveling down the TB and the connecting tubes. The back of the TB/Plate looks like it suffered a major amount of 'blow by' (I believe that's how it's termed when you see burn type marks and oil sludginess build up.

-check and clean TB thoroughly.
-If you hear a sparking type of noise coming from the actuator attached to the right of the TB, it is likely you will need a replacement like mines.

Hope it works out brotha

Chris

pcy

If a stream of oil is flowing thru the crankcase ventilation tubes in to the TB, indicating oil is burning, oil must be replenished/added quite often. No?

BigAlC230K

Wow! After reading this post... I think I'm having this problem.

rabney72

Yes and no, with the compressors on these motors you will get both blow by and oil in the intake plumbing which is normal. I can see why the tb is gunked up. On a 10k interval oil change I lose about a quart (out of 6) so not bad at all.

Chris or Glyn, do you know if these cars have an idle air controller motor or do they use the tb instead? ( my 98 ford has a manual tb and so the idle control is done by a little stepper motor)

Glyn M Ruck

They use a fully active TB for idle, acceleration etc - fly by wire - and of course MAF & O2 sensors for AF ratio/fuel trim.

rabney72

Thats cool, makes a lot of sense now.

Thanks

BigAlC230K

Took care of the issue yesterday... My Indy shop replaced alternator - works fine now! $600 to fix it O'well, had to be fixed