SoCalw11w123

I highly recommend ANYONE doing their water pump service to also replace their IDLER pulley (as well as a new serpentine belt!)

My original pulley melted at 138k miles and caused my belt to fail and rip into shreds!

No Belt= no alternator, no power steering, no A/C and no WaterPump! the car immediately started to overheat after 5mins of Idling w/out a water pump working.

the CLK stranded me 200 miles away from home in the middle of nowhere! Nowhere near a Napa or other import parts house!

thanks to BMAparts.com ill have my parts expedited and should take an hour of wrenching, but cost me an extra night hotel stay (and emergency tool purchase)

just venting.....

sonnyhoang

damn i am sorry to hear what happened, were there any symptoms before the car overheated? my car has been running at about 90ish degrees for the last 2weeks but hasnt really show any problems, even when i added coolant, the temp doesnt go down.

jbenz2001

Damn bro that ****ing sucks,I will def note that.I'm hitting 130,000 nowi will def put that under my pms to do list.was there n e warnig that it was go n bad?

SoCalw11w123

no real warning! I did the Water pump like 5 months ago.....
the Idler pulley appeared to be in perfect shape.

I got a ride to Orange County, picked up the Escalade, took off the 26" wheels, installed the 22" then got a Uhaul Car Transport trailer.

200 more miles and Im home!

bobbyjo9

Hey Sonny... just a heads up, remember if you have too much coolent to water ratio, your temp will rise no mater what. Try cking the ratio bofore you go anyfuther and could be as simple as draining out fluild and adding plain water.

bobbyjo9

Guess its a good thing we have one belt... its hard to miss all those accesories going out at the same time but just a water pump?? Miss that temp gauge and things get ugly fast! Cool you still had a nice ride to save the day!

SoCalw11w123

My theory on how it all happens:

Idler Pulley bearing fails, gets SUPER HOT then that causes the ABS plastic pulley to melt and desintengrate....thus causing the belt to snap.

a FAilure of a 24.00 dollar Idler Pulley ruins a 50.00 dollar Serp. belt, and the snaping belt breaks the 80.00 dollar fan clutch blades and then a 70.00 dollar fan shroud.

on my message display i got a RED MESSAGE: BATTERY VOLTAGE warning (i guess the alternator out indicator) then i felt that the power steering was gone!

bobbyjo9

Still... coulda been worse, aluminum is not very forgiving when you overheat. Thats a price tag that will ruin more than your day! LOL.. Im kinna surprised that the belt didnt start screaming when the pully froze... or did ya have the tunes cranked?

da_guitarist

Happened to my 55 at only 55k miles. That's a cheap part just asking to fail! All my lights dimmed and power steering went out....I said uh oh!

dlbehrns

there was a recall on that pulley for my 99 a few years ago. dealer replaced for free.

alexander12m12

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this similar issue happened to me at 76k Miles in my 430 I just replaced it with another OEM Pulley..... I was wondering if there is another aftermarket idler pulley that I could use instead to guarantee that this won't happen again?



Thanks,
Alexander

dlbehrns

not that I am aware of.

alexander12m12

Thanks for the response I guess I have more studying to do about this issue