MIKESV8

My belt just came off on my c55 because one of the rings broke off that hold it in place.i have some pics to come later. I noticed that my power steering went out and my heat gauge just randomly shot up and my fan came on so I immediately pulled over and shut off the engine. I don't think it's a big deal, but what do you guys think my indy will charge to repair it?

AMGnut88

i really cant imagine it being an expensive fix, when you say rings your talking about the idler pulleys? i mean parts the belt is like 20-30 bucks and if your talking about the pulleys i dont think itll be expensive and at most an hour of labor or so. id imagine 200 or less. if your feeling frisky id just do it yourself if you have the tools its much funner that ways makes u feel one with the machine

loudandheard

Should be an easy fix if it didn't damage anything else. Any pics of the ring that broke?

MIKESV8

It's the highest ring if you can tell by that. I'll post pics in a little bit

c32AMG-DTM

Your belt must be cheap... a C32 belt (MB, anyway) is in the neighborhood of 60 bucks.

Depending on which pulley failed, it might be a couple hundred, or several hundred... I'd expect less than a thousand regardless - if it didn't damage anything else.

AMGnut88

well off autohauz its not too bad its about 30 bucks..... and i didnt think an idler pulley would be that much but ive never had to replace one.

AMGnut88

on that note i cant find any on the internet but im not going crazy on searching just kinda scanning

Chedeng88

Wow, what's the mileage of your C55 Mike? Less than 30K right?

loudandheard

Considering it's a mercedes, that is relatively cheap, but on parts.com it's cheaper than $60, maybe $60 with shipping.

As for the pulley, hopefully the mount was not broken, is the pulley damaged?

Here's a link for a pulley and belt, see if this is what you need.
http://www.parts.com/oemcatalog/inde...layCatalogid=0

MIKESV8

it all started with this



then i popped the hood and saw that the idler pulley had been ripped off.


then i looked around a little bit and saw both pieces sitting on the floor pan.



anyways, my car will be done tomorrow and i was quoted in the $200 range with parts and labor. couldn't be happier.

loudandheard

Fixed

From looking at the pic, the pulley must have seized but only the outer ring broke off . Everything looks to be ok and it should be a simple fix if the mount is still round and true.

MIKESV8

thanks.

so what my mechanic said is that the pulley went bad and froze up, but the belt is so powerful is just tore it right off. that's pretty crazy. i'm just glad nothing happened to my engine because the heat went all the way up on the cluster for about 20 seconds until i shut it off on the side of the road.

MIKESV8

another picture

mkonei

I changed my idler and belt around 65k when I replaced my voltage regulator...glad i did.

loudandheard

I think it's the idler pulley and if that's the case, then it shouldn't cost more then $20-$30 for it. If nothing is damaged and all you have to do is replace the belt and the pulley, then you could probably do it for around $100.

Count yourself lucky, I've heard horror stories of the whole mount shearing off or the belt and pulley hitting the oil cooler and damaging it as well. Were you hearing any odd sounds from the pulleys before this happened?

MIKESV8

i'm actually at 65k right now

AMG3.2

Good thing it's getting fixed just in time before the meet!

MIKESV8

exactly. it happened right before our school exit off the freeway. funny cus the chp who pulled up behind me is the same one who was writing my friend a ticket a few seconds before for speeding. my friend with the bike was with me and we diagnosed the problem before CHP even pulled up. the guy with the m6 that goes to our school picked us up, he's going too. you should run against it.lol

AMG3.2

oh dang that sucks...

Saaboteur

Idler pulley! They are cheap, I think I paid $15 for one online. The problem - on the C43 at least - is that the bolt is very long, like 4" to 5". Because of that length, it's impossible to remove it without the rad coming out too. But that's on the 43, I hope it's different on the 55!!

Mark.D

any symptoms prior to failure?

splinter

MB’s OE (and various aftermarket) serpentine belt hardware hasn’t proven particularly durable.
Our ~15,000-mile M272 was included in a MBUSA DTB campaign owing to prematurely failing pulleys.

Preemptively replaced my C32’s idlers and tensioner after reading your and boohoorambler’s pulley posts. Knock wood.


*off topic*

How’s your 996TT X50 treating you?
Not coincidentally, received my December issue of Excellence in the mailbox today.

MIKESV8

absolutely. very first thing that happened that was noticeable was that visit workshop light. i ignored it for about 10 seconds and was looking to take it into the shop on friday because i thought nothing of it.

next, my friend and i heard my fan going crazy, very loud.

then looked at my temperature guage, and it was at the pin point highest it can go

then i light weight sort of freaked out

then i was about to exit anyways, so i was making the right turn, and my steering got weaker, and weaker until i had absolutely no power steering left.

then i hit the brakes, and they as well got weaker and weaker until i was finally pulled into weeds on the side of the road.

shut the engine off right away, about 35 seconds after sign initially appeared.

weird thing is, after i popped the hood and noticed the belt was off and the plastic was broken off, i put the keys to the on position to check my temp. and it was at normal operating temp again (about 90 degrees)

but i did go crazy when they brought out a tow truck instead of a flat bed and tried putting it on it, i have pics of that too. overall a great learning experience.

splinter

Seriously?
Any MFD 'too late by then' warning typically triggers after a failure has occurred.

MIKESV8

for all i know, it probably did occur, then the warning came on. i was driving in a straight line and everything seemed normal, until i saw the temp. pointing straight up.