justinwrock

Spare me the "use the search", I tried and didn't find much...

Im on the side of the road 50 miles from home, and my supercharger bearing just went out. Pulled over because it was making tons of racket, and well, it doesnt look pretty.


I have the tools to pull the belt in the trunk, just want to know if its safe to drive. I found 1 post saying it should be ok, but nothing other than that. Should I call a flatbed, or just pull it and roll home?

BTW - I ordered a replacement bearing after it started leaking grease when it was hot. Should have replaced it then. :/

theeddie

you are fine, good luck
enjoy your stock e500

chawkins2001

Yes,just take it easy.

jay_55

same thing happened to me while driving, the ball bearings were flying out every where.

personally i put it on a flat bed and sent it away to my shop, i was later told that i would be okay to drive as long as i did so at a slow speed.

but in the interest in not doing further damaged i would get it towed.

Sad to see the beast (or any other beast) get towed away like that, but i think its well worth it.

as the eddie said "enjoy your stock E500 for now"

BlkE55K

When my belt snapped, I described my car as going from around 600 HP down to 90. It will work, but will be sloooooow!

55fanatic

So what did you end up doing Justin?

Jakpro1

Nah no flatbed. Shes fine, it'll just limp home with error for lack of belt. Won't hurt it a bit.

skratch77

What size belt belt were you running

Toadster

wow that sucks - were you exercising your belt at the time?

hope it's all good now...

£ C43 £ AMG £

Toad is this in your price range?


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M113-990-M...item19ccfbe237

You can save up later for the rest of the car later

Toadster

would be an interesting motor in a MKIV FF Cobra

skratch77

If you have a stock belt size and with a 172mm or lower size pulley i would get the 51.4 gates belt.

I know the stock belt will fit a 168 and maybe a 172 but it will be very tight and put extra strain on the bearing.

justinwrock

Wound up pullng the best and driving home.



Did not feel like waiting 2 hours for a tow truck lol

justinwrock

Just an OEM belt from the dealer.


My pulley is stock... For now.

Toadster

now wouldn't a concise sticky that answers "can I drive without a supercharger belt" have helped you out last night ?

hehe - I'm TRYING!

justinwrock

Yeah I was super scared and didn't rev past 4k rpm the whole time.


I think it might have been slower than an E500

justinwrock

Yeah - that would have been nice!

justinwrock

Sweet! I was expecting a check engine light though, but nothing popped up...


No, I was just driving home like a normal - sane person!

Shes tucked away in the garage atm.

Ryououki

Wow, that sucks man. Sorry to hear that happened. Good luck on getting her back up and running.

justinwrock

And shes BACK!


Installed the bearing at a friends shop last night.


Took a few days to verify the bearing part number (I found 4 different part numbers in various threads), but had this one arrive at my house yesterday:




Man, its nice to have boost again!

GT-ER

I've driven mine a few times without the belt and even raced a friend without it. Slow is an understatement...it feels like a 15 second car.

justinwrock

Also - want to add that I drove about 125 total miles without the supercharger belt being on the car. I noted that it would show ESP disabled when at freeway speeds, and that it just did not like rev'ing past 2200 rpms with no belt on it.


As an added bonus - my supercharger is quiet now when at idle! I was told that the gears internal to the supercharger were just noisy - apparently not the case. The noise that I heard while idling has gone away with the bearing replacement!

Check your bearings guys! These is an inexpensive part, and a very easy DIY project!

theeddie

yah mine was a blue band but it works

justinwrock

I was too scared to get on it without the belt!



Sucked big time, I had a run-in with one of the new bi-turbo 63s!

BTW - how many miles did your bearing have on it?

Toadster

how much did the bearing cost?
any DIY coming?

any new found power? or just less noise?