C55 threw the belt
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Houston - Clear Lake
C63 coupe, Z3M Roadster garage queen
C55 threw the belt
I made a hard left tonight and nailed my C55. The tires spun a little, the ESP kicked in and the engine sagged for a second, and then I was off again. In the next instant the info panel in the dash lit up with a big red battery and some sort of warning about needing to take the car to the shop. About the same time I realized that I had no power steering. This car takes a lot of muscle to get around a corner with no power steering!
I nursed it home, opened the hood, and found the belt lying flat just below the pullies. It looks perfect - no cuts, no rubs, nothing. The car is an 06, about 18 months old with 14k miles. Has anyone else been through this? What seems like probable causes? Stretched belt? Bad tensioner? Bad pulley or failing pulley bearing? I'm about to go put the belt back on but don't know whether this was a fluke or whether I'll just be shedding it again tomorrow.
I nursed it home, opened the hood, and found the belt lying flat just below the pullies. It looks perfect - no cuts, no rubs, nothing. The car is an 06, about 18 months old with 14k miles. Has anyone else been through this? What seems like probable causes? Stretched belt? Bad tensioner? Bad pulley or failing pulley bearing? I'm about to go put the belt back on but don't know whether this was a fluke or whether I'll just be shedding it again tomorrow.
Last edited by zcct04; Dec 6, 2007 at 01:19 AM. Reason: subscribing to thread
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Houston - Clear Lake
C63 coupe, Z3M Roadster garage queen
Went out to reinstall the belt after letting the car cool a couple of hours. No luck. There's a bare shaft sticking out on the upper part of the block that looks like it once carried a plastic pulley. Guess I'm going to have to nurse it in to the dealership in the morning, hoping that the battery can handle the electrical load and my biceps can handle the unboosted steering.
Anyone else had this failure?
Anyone else had this failure?
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Joined: Dec 2005
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From: So Cal
2006 Weistec 3.0L SC'd C55, 2006 MaxPsi PT6466 Turbo'd M3, 2019 Maserati GTS , 2020Alfa Quadrifoglio
Went out to reinstall the belt after letting the car cool a couple of hours. No luck. There's a bare shaft sticking out on the upper part of the block that looks like it once carried a plastic pulley. Guess I'm going to have to nurse it in to the dealership in the morning, hoping that the battery can handle the electrical load and my biceps can handle the unboosted steering.
Anyone else had this failure?
Anyone else had this failure?
Same thing happened to me but I thought it was because of my supercharger. I had to change the tensioner pulley that cost a few hundred bucks. In my case, the belt shredded instead of shedded. Before this incident, I noticed that when I depressed the acclerator hard sometimes the rpm would shoot up to redline but the car did not speed up much. This turned out to be signs of the belt starting to slip. Did you have such symptoms before the belt came off entirely?
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,308
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From: Houston - Clear Lake
C63 coupe, Z3M Roadster garage queen
AMGSC - I don't recall anything unusual at all prior to this happening.
I've lost an idler pulley once before in the supercharged Pontiac V6 I once had. The bearings apparently got hot and the plastic pulley couldn't handle it. It was common for users to replace that pulley with a metal one, and GM eventually began stocking metal replacements at the dealers. Are any of our pullies plastic?
I've lost an idler pulley once before in the supercharged Pontiac V6 I once had. The bearings apparently got hot and the plastic pulley couldn't handle it. It was common for users to replace that pulley with a metal one, and GM eventually began stocking metal replacements at the dealers. Are any of our pullies plastic?
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,347
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From: So Cal
2006 Weistec 3.0L SC'd C55, 2006 MaxPsi PT6466 Turbo'd M3, 2019 Maserati GTS , 2020Alfa Quadrifoglio
AMGSC - I don't recall anything unusual at all prior to this happening.
I've lost an idler pulley once before in the supercharged Pontiac V6 I once had. The bearings apparently got hot and the plastic pulley couldn't handle it. It was common for users to replace that pulley with a metal one, and GM eventually began stocking metal replacements at the dealers. Are any of our pullies plastic?
I've lost an idler pulley once before in the supercharged Pontiac V6 I once had. The bearings apparently got hot and the plastic pulley couldn't handle it. It was common for users to replace that pulley with a metal one, and GM eventually began stocking metal replacements at the dealers. Are any of our pullies plastic?
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Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Miami
Bicycle
In a old post of me installing the Ams crank pulley i warned c55 owners to keep an eye on the idler pulley b/c when i was doing the install out of nature i checked all pullies and found that cheap plastic pulley up on top with a cover was very loose when moving it back and forth. I went to the dealer and purchased it new for about $20 dollars. I guess i got it on time before any damage.
