a3i

So I've had the car for about 2 months now and last night on my way home from work the tensioner pulley gave in, broke and cut the belt in pieces. Luckily it was about 5 minutes from my house and I was able to make it home but none less...little too early I reckon at 39 000 miles, it is a 2005 though. Its Sunday today and I cant do much about it so I have to wait until tomorrow to take it in. How much am I looking at money wise here? I mean i know towing is going to bang me over the head about a bill right off the bat but what can I expect at the shop? Im ****ing pissed but oh well I guess **** happens, could be worse, I could be living in Afghanistan or something

LILBENZ230

It continued to be drivable?!

I have no idea what your repair will be like. If it is just the belt and tensioner, it shouldn't be terribly bad. If there is collateral damage it could be really bad.

samaritrey

AAA towing FTW

Surprised it went out so soon. My tensioner has 158k on it (replacing very soon) and belt is who knows how old and still looks fine.

a3i

Yeah, it threw the Alternator/Battery light on but it was still driving. What do you mean by collateral damage?

Yeah, I have no clue why it went so early, I had been noticing some whistling sound when idling lately though

LILBENZ230

The tensioner on the M271 is a known weak spot. Mine is fine, too, though at almost 106k miles. I was banking on it making noise before failing.

By collateral damage I mean alternator and A/C compressor.

a3i

Well, I'm going to try to slide it under some sort of a warranty from the salesman who I bought it from. I wasnt even thinking about joining AAA, I guess I was spoiled by my Acura that didnt leave me by the side of the rode the whole 200k I put on it. Make no mistake though, I think the Benz is way above Acura in performance

LILBENZ230

I had the exact opposite experience with Acura.. try 3x transmissions in 76k miles.

Are you SURE it is the tensioner? That's a very labor intensive job since you have to remove the supercharger. Member e24kgold paid $1,000 in all for the replacement of the tensioner, idler pulley, and belt.

a3i

Well I hope things are not going to get that crazy. You might be right though, I was trying to take some of the front end apart this morning and it seems like theres alot of stuff that needs to be removed. Its definitely the pulley though, the plastic ring part of it ripped off.

Im really surprised about your Acura experience, I didnt have a single problem with it the whole time I owned it. Only downfall I thought it had was poor drive quality and horrible brakes. I ended up crashing it 3 times and 2 of them could have been avoided probably if I had been driving the Benz

LILBENZ230

Yes, stupid Honda and their weaksauce brakes. I owned a 2002 TL. I'm assuming you had either a newer model, a four-cylinder, or a 6MT.

So you are positive it is the tensioner and not the idler pulley or something like that?

a3i

I had a 99 RL 3.5, I did have many people warn me about the transmission but I never had a problem.

Definitely the tensioner, I looked at some pictures people had posted and its definitely the plastic pulley with the metal bracket which is the tensioner. The parts itself dont seem that expensive but the labor does look bad. Well, Im dropping it off tomorrow and see what they say, if the dont want to do it under warranty and try to hit me with a crazy bill Im going to have to get the parts myself and do it myself or have one of my mechanically a little more inclined than me friends do it. I'll keep posted.

Sucks big time though, had some mods planned for the car and everything, just ended up getting my xenons set at present last week which ended a 3 week hassle with the HID lights and now this. Not going to have any money for mods for a while but I'm hoping for best

Xhale707

You drove the car home with the belt broken? How can that even be possible? Im amazed you didn't damage your car further more. seeing as you would have No powering steering No water pump No to a bunch of stuff. But now i see the intake hoses on the C230s yikes. Looks like you need to get that fixed as well no duck tape. & people keep saying the C230's 2005 are reliable.. Sorry about ur car man

39k miles is still almost new..

a3i

Yeah I wouldnt be surprised if I did damage the car even more aswell, the power steering was gone and the car was close to overheating by the time I pulled it to the driveway. It did happen about 5 mins from my house so I might have driven it 5 miles max like that but oh well I guess I'll see what they say tomorrow. Yeah the intake hose has been like that since I got it, somebody went in there before me and managed to rip the hose apart.

LILBENZ230

39k miles is only almost new if the car is a 2010 model. With a build date in 2004 or early 2005 a car is not almost new under any circumstances regardless of mileage. Time can wear on a car just like miles.

The sarcastic remark about the 2005 C230s is also, well, - I have ~106k miles without major issue. It's the most reliable car I have ever owned. I came to MBWorld to learn things about the W203, but that's not what brings a lot of people here. The very nature of the forum (and ANY car forum, for that matter) is to troubleshoot or modify. Lots of people register here simply to ask about problems. Your average owner is not going to register just to tell us all that hey, it's going okay.

Every car is different, even the same model of the same year. Also, every time period of the W203 have their own specific problems. 2005s have a few that are specific, like the fuel filler neck. 2006-2007s have camshaft solenoid failures and some 7G owners have valve bodies that cause rough shifting. 2003 C230s are prone to head problems. 2002 W203s have radiators that leak glycol into the transmission fluid.

The fact is, judged by the likelihood of problems, the worst W203s to have are the 2001-2002 models and the best to have are the 2005-2007 models, with the knowledge in mind that anything can happen to any of those cars from very reliable 2001s (like Trey's) to issues like this one on his 2005 to fuel pump failures on 2007s (johnand).

slammer111

Looks like your intake hose is damaged too. That can be fixed with some Krazy glue though.

Can you take a pic of the pulley/tensioner that broke? Time to check my own car.

Sounds like you had a bad break. My belt is 8 years old and still pretty much looks brand new.

Glyn M Ruck

**** happens

dmatre

+1

My tensioner/belt let go on the highway back in December (130k miles), and the sequence of warnings was quite rapid:
1st - Alternator/Battery Failure
2nd - Engine Overheat

After the 1st failure, I drove on, hoping to get as far as the next major city before losing the last juice from the battery.

It wasn't 10-15 seconds later that the engine overheat warning appeared. I kicked the car to neutral, pulled off the road, and the temp. indicated >120C in that short time. I can't imagine what driving an additional 5 minutes without a water pump did. (Possible head warpage?)

After getting towed (carried) about 90 miles to the nearest dealership, the whole deal ran $746 (tensioner, belt, towing, etc.).

LILBENZ230, samaritrey: I did notice the pulley making noise (sounded like dry bearing), but as I was 6 hours from home, I was hoping to make it back home before having it checked out. From what I saw, if you start to hear the bearing, you've probably got around 250 miles before it gives up. At 106k, I'd consider changing it at the next service, to avoid what I went through (laid up in a hotel over a weekend awaiting parts to be flown in).

a3i

Well this is whats left of the pulley



I started hearing a whistling sound a couple of weeks ago and didnt make much of it, I was going to get it checked out eventually since my oil change was almost due but never got to it. Just make sure, any unusual sounds are always worth checking out. I'm sitting home now waiting for a tow truck.

slammer111

Damn.

Just wondering, is your belt OEM? The belt in my car says Mercedes-Benz all over it.

sknight

You really think a car isn't driveable without the belt? In my old Audis, I used to use two batteries (one in the trunk), and had an alternator die on me and I was able to do 20 miles. Nothing is going to blow up. Should there be something common, one might lose the power steering, but the car is driveable. If you have an SC, the car is still driveable because Mercedes uses bypasses. If the water pump is included, then there's a problem... Check the belt routing. Speaking of which, have to figure mine out.

a3i

I dont know if the belt is OEM, I dont see any writing on it and seems like the belt has been changed before because when I was taking the front end apart yesterday and it seemed like someone had been there before. I would like to think its an OEM though with 39K miles on it, I dont see why it would have been changed

tommy

If you bought it from an MB dealership, wouldn't the towing be covered under the new rules? If not, I would try to have them give you free towing anyway, assuming you're taking it to a dealership for the repairs. Though an indy would be cheaper on the repairs, weigh that against the free loaner and (hopefully) free towing of the dealership.

Now, that lightweight pulley should be able to release a whole bunch of ponies.

I agree that the intake tube looks to be damaged as well, but differ on what to do; I'd say that a new tube would be a safer and smarter way to go.

Good luck; as Glyn said, sh*t happens. Could have been worse.

a3i

Nah I bought it from one of those Indy shops/dealers. Im getting it towed to the same place, my friend is hooking me up with his AAA membership. Like I said, I'm hoping to slide this repair under some sort of a warranty from the dealer (lack of inspection before handing me the car or something like that lol)

You right, **** happens thought what can you do

e24kgold

yup, i do recall that...

sknight

Damn. Another thing to add to the list, since I drive through different countries. The car is low mileage (~62k miles) and an M111, but I'm going to be changing belts, plugs, coolant, possibly hoses and thermostat, and an intake cleaning, so while I'm there, I might want to check in on the tensioner.

Problematic on the m111? How much do they run?

dmatre

Mine was the M271, don't know about the M111.