MG

Got a "Battery Charge" alert tonight and then lost power steering and engine temp started to climb. Great, Need a new serp belt right?

I shut down the radio and climate control and limped the car home. Get in the garage and open the hood to see if the belt is still there and find that the WHOLE Alternator pulley is sitting in my engine pan and the belt is wound up good.

Oh for the love of crap, I just had that alternator put in two years ago!!

Luckily this happened less than 3 miles from home after a 6 HOUR drive from DC in this god awful slush storm we are having.

Some times its better to be lucky than good! (ASR saved my *** when I hit a patch of ice in the Baltimore tunnel too, the car twitched to the side and the ASR locked it right down Thankyou MB!)

Soooooooooooooooooooo WTF is up with the Alternator pulley?

MG

piccy

HOWSER

You should inquire to what the warranty is on the replaced alternator. It may be covered for replacement.

MG

Warranty is for 1 year, so I am out of luck.

I pulled the alternator and fished the pulley out of the pan. Bottom line, burned bearings. I had heard some squeak out of it in the last two weeks when I started the car and assumed the belt was slipping. Bad assumption on my part.

ohlord

installed it with to much tension and the torque twisted the pulley apart.
Alt fried?
used aurora auto wrecking seattle
or new ouch autohausaz.com
ohlord

MG

I have no idea how to tell if the Alt is fried or not. I gave it the sniff test and it doesn't smell burned, but thats about as sophisticated a test as I can muster.

ohlord

have auto electric shops out here that rebuild alts,look around by you to see if one can test it and replace the pulley.Or east coast wrecking yards that do Benz like aurora auto wrecking do

MG

I haven't been able to find a part for a w210 on the net, but going on parts for other models of MB It should run me under $40 new.

We'll see what the mechanic says tomorrow.

I went through my service records and the last time anyone fiddled with my Serp belt was the dealership when they replaced my harmonic Balancer. Ain't that a kick in the shins?

illest

Potomac German Auto...google it

MG

Nada, but thanks for the link.

MG

Correction to the problem. (remember, I know zero about mechanical issues but am learning)

Since I had some time today I paid attention. I could not figure out how to marry the Pulley I fished out of the pan to the grooved pulley on the Alternator, and the more I looked at it the less sense it made. There was no damage to the alternator like there should have been if something came flying off it at 2800 rpm

I also fished a washer and nut out of the pan, but NO BOLT.

Went looking through the rest of the engine and found the pix below. Makes more sense, bolt all alone, bent, big gash on the bolt head next to it and a smoke trail on the engine block underneath it.

Belt Tensioner it is. I'm confident this time

JimPurdy

Ahh... That was a belt tensioner pully. The alternator is on the other side of the engine. That "bolt" should turn out of the casting and be replaced.

Jim

MG

Resolution:

Tensioner mechanism was trashed total replacement, when it came flying off, it bashed the water pump pulley so it had to be replaced as well.

Moral of the story? Squeaking belts might actually be pulley bearings going bad, check it out early.

youseffex

alternator pulleys are infamous for doing that, they should be changed every year otherwise MB would not find anybody to buy thier crappy parts.