So....

Recently had my 185 kit installed by a local shop. Benztek. First off, if any of you are ever for some reason in Tucson and need work on your car, DO NOT GO THERE.

anyway, they installed my kit. I realized that, while looking at my pulley setup, that the belt on my idler was slightly off the pulley. I wondered why that was? Then TemjinX2 brought it to my attention that when I sold him my wrap kit, I left him short a washer. I was confused....That is when I popped the hood, and noticed that the black washer was sitting there, between the middle idler pulley (LET one) and the bolt there. It was NOT supposed to be there. Awesome.....

....So besides coming down with the flu and extremely bad allergies to the point that I am currently wheezing and am on antibiotics, I needed to get this washer off. So I was going to do it this Wednesday (two days ago). Popped the hood, started undoing the EGR stuff and that bracket up top. Then I reached for a star socket....got the right size, put it on, thats when i realized.....it was stripped.....those f***ers at Benztek stripped my tensioner bolt (they also f*d up my rear end, which i know Hooley heard up at DynoComp recently, had to get that fixed too).....

so I called them up and asked if they could just do the job for me. i said it would be a quick 15 minute job, you know, take off the EGR, that bracket, loosen up the belt, take off the washer, and then put everything back together. guy was like well "if i remember correctly, your tensioner bolt was rounded out, so it would take longer than that." and i was like "really?" and he was like "yah, when you dropped off the car, whoever worked on it last must have stripped it", and i was like, "well when i dropped it off, it was 100% not stripped"......blah blah blah......guy kept denying it. i was like w/e....then he said i would need a whole new tensioner pulley setup that would cost me like 280....and said NO, thats BS.....you should be able to just get the star head bolt......again, he insisted that iw as wrong.....i went over to MB of Tucson......boom, i can order the bolt by itself

so now with all of that drama out of the way on 3 hrs of sleep and just finishing a 10hr work day, i have this question:





in the first picture, the pulley in question is #9. In the second picture, i circled in red the bolt (star head i think) that is stripped or "rounded out".....NOTE....this is not a picture of MY tensioner bolt with star head.

so here is my question, I need to take of this washer, and to do that i need to do what i said above. now, first off, anyone remember off the top of their head what size star it is?

also, anyone have the exact part number? if i need to take out the rounded out star head bolt, any ideas? tools or recommendations? all i need to do is take of this F*ing washer and send it to TemjinX2 (so sorry!). Benztek said to come in on Wednesday and they will "take a look at it" for $92 an hr......f that....i told him it could be done in 15 had they not stripped it, but they just want money, BSing me on my needing a whole new tensioning pulley setup and whantnot

end rant/story

 

Don't use the star bolt. Put a metric socket on the bolt around it.

 

really? i think i've only used the star bolt in the past...i mean it isnt easy to strip if you know what you are doing, but those dumba$$es clearly didnt...

i was thinking about doing it, but wasnt sure if there were any detrimental effects of messing with that one behind the star head....is that regular threaded or reverse threaded?

 

threaded...just don't crank on it or it will loosen, but put it on and slowly move it over and you will be good to go

 

ok....so just turn clockwise the least possible amount to slip the belt off? if i remember when i was using the star head, it took a crap load of cranking on it to get the belt back on

 

Please let us know how it turns out.


I hate it when Shop screws something up and atleast don't try to correct things and all to keep your money...

 

yeah you can get the belt off without the tensioner but getting it back on it almost impossible without moving. That what i ended up doing with my code3 install when i didnt know what i was doing. I got the belt off and couldnt figure out how to put it on.

As for the shop, it say you go back make them pay for the whole thing. If you paid with credit card, tell them your gonna issue a charge back and get the whole some back if they don't fix there mistake.

 

yah i did pay with CC. i'll look into that

....so are you saying that you used that metric socket on the bolt around it to put the belt back on then?

 

i did when i first put on the code3....it was one of those heads thats a circle but has a bunch of little teeth on it. Not metric with the 5 sides. Then i got a torex head later, but i remember i was able to use the metric piece with the multiple teeth on it.

 

im confused.....so you put the belt back on using the star bolt (one circled in picture) or the metric one (one behind it)?

my biggest concern is the amount i would need to crank it (if you are talking about the metric bolt) over to fit the belt on with the 185. it is really hard to fit on there.

 

sorry..about the confusion, i was able to use the metric with the on the actual star bolt. But my star teeth were still good.

I would go with lougne's suggestion and just get a deep metric socket and put it around the metric bolt.

 

yah thats what im going to have to do, but i need to find out the limits of cranking on that bolt. i know i can slip off the belt now with slight cranking of it, but getting the belt on, major PITA, requires extreme cranking....just want to make sure that that metric bolt can hold up to some serious cranking to put the belt back on with the 185.

 

are there any teeth at all left on the star bolt? maybe you can move the star bolt with a slightly under sized socket.

But i would imaging with all the yrs of dirt, water and mud the bolt has built up. It should be on there pretty tight before it comes loose.

 

i'll try tomorrow. there are some teeth, but the star head is definitely stripping/rounding out. if it doesnt work, i'll try to take a picture of it.

 

Once you get the belt off, you'll need to change out that stripped Torx head, right? Jake's right, you use the larger sized metric bolt to take the whole thing off. Change out the Torx for your new one from the MB parts dept., and reinstall with the metric nut. Then use your E10 Torx socket to release the tensioner as you normally would, and reinstall the belt.

Sorry to hear about how the shop botched the job, and now are in CYA mode of "deny, deny, deny" - good luck getting things squared away.

 

It's counterclockwise to move the tensioner and that loosens the belt.

I experienced that when I was installing my C3 pulley. I misread the instructions on their website. Counterclockwise was written in two words so I thought it was turn the counter clockwise duh!! I almost stripped the starhead bolt in doing so.

IT DOESN'T TAKE A LOT TO TURN THE BOLT CLOCKWISE, A 8 - 10 DEGREE TURN WILL LOOSEN UP THE BELT.
THE BOLT ACTUALLY DOESN'T TURN. THE WHOLE HUB PULLEY SPINS AROUND AN AXIS AND YOU'RE USING THE BOLT TO MOVE IT.

 

come on guys..left loosey...righty tighty..lol.

 

yah, im guessing when the belt comes off, i will have to replace that torx bolt. just spoke with MB of Tucson and they cant get in that torx until Wednesday. Sucks.

now you speak of a metric nut...is there one already on there? i thought there was just that torx bolt and that metric bolt? or it a metric nut?

also, to make sure MB parts is giving me the right torx bolt, can someone give me the part number if they have it handy? (....cough, cough, Splinter, Boohoo...cough, cough...lol)

 

jake, bump

 

here you go...

put the socket on the outer part (not the star)

put tension on it (don't move it)

slowly and gingerly move it (counterclockwise) ..meaning don't just crank it and it should be fine. If it loosens just change the wrench and crank it back down.

make sense?

 

yes, and this is for putting the belt back on correct?

 

yup....for moving the belt tensioner either way..

 

unfortunately, nothing to update yet. i've been confined to my bed/room. too fatigued and feverish (a week now). had to miss school and work this week/end. getting bloodwork and chest xrays done to check for pneumonia, valley fever, and recurrent mononucleosis because i am still sick and not really improving even after switching to stronger antibiotics. hopefully, will get better enough by wednesday or thursday to get to work on the car and resolve this issue. FML

 

Hey buddy the car is nothing without you so get better first ok.

 

i hope you get well.