C240 aux belt slowly shredding

[seymansey]

Hmm, worrying.

The front two grooves on the aux belt of my V6 are slowly disintegrating. I can see splatter throgh the engine of the bits of belt.

Will need to get the belt off and see what the hell is going on

 

[grober]

Get this looked at ASAP. What might be causing this is the disintegration of the crankshaft harmonic balancer AKA the crankshaft pulley. It is a composite pulley with a steel inner bonded to a steel outer via a rubber insert. These can crack and let go suddenly with catastrophic consequences to the timing chain case/sump. Fortunately its a relatively cheap fix - new pulley-- if caught in time!
do a search on this forum several posts on this + pictures

 

[BlackC55]

Seconded.

Try not to run the engine too much too as the damage can be severe

 

[seymansey]

Righty, i'll get onto this then. Are there any visual signs that I can check the balancer for?

 

[grober]

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=14748&highlight=harmonic

 

[vijilants]

Just for a matter of interest is it only the V6 that suffers from this problem ?

 

[seymansey]

Only V6s and V8s, from '98 onwards according to the links in the thread above...

 

[seymansey]

Another thing I have noticed is that there is a fair amount of oil leaking from around the aircon pump / power steering pump area? Any common leak areas around there? The belt is carrying the leaking oil and spraying it about :S

 

[stevesey]

Mine has a small weep from somewhere behind the oil filter and power steering pump. Cleaned up several years of contamination a while back, I haven't seem much new but I must get a mirror out and have a closer look.

 

[grober]

Its possible the bearing on the power steering pump is failing causing the the hydraulic fluid to leak out. Are you sure its engine oil and not power steering fluid? If its hydraulic fluid it may eventually damage your underbonnet paint work. If the pulley is not running true it could also be the cause of your belt damage? BUT CHECK THAT HARMONIC BALANCER!!!!!!!!

 

[seymansey]

Update!

Found the issue.

Oil filter housing was leaking, oil was dripping onto the aux belt, spraying it everywhere and of course the oil was causing the belt to disintegrate.

Replaced the three seals in this diagram (17, 23 and 35) - at a cost of £32 (!). For reference, the oilfilter housing is held in place by item 41, which is a 46mm nut - Halfords did the socket to fit this for £14.

Front of engine was steamed down and cleaned. New oil, filter and belt, and all is happy woo!

:bannana:

 

[rpe2]

Had exactly this problem on the father in law's car earlier this yr, I too was astonished by the cost of the seals...

Richard

 

[seymansey]

When I removed the seals, it was obvious why the leak was taking place - all three of the seals were rock hard and extremely brittle and soon fell to pieces in my hand!

 

[grober]

Did you check the harmonic balancer?

 

[seymansey]

Did you check the harmonic balancer?

Yes, was fine, no cracking, no wobbling. Also, the part number printed on it seems to be the revised version