Not Impressed! And a Harmonic Balancer how to ....

[stargazerplus]

Yes I am fussy and difficult to please... but just a whinge. Took my car in to Mercaid to have them replace the harmonic balancer/crankshaft pulley. Was quoted an hours labour. At lunchtime when I was promised the car was going to be ready, I got a call...

Them: Just an update on your car..

Me: Yes

Them: We are having a bit of difficulty getting the visous fan coupling off your car...

Me: Why are you taking the fan coupling off?

Them: To improve access...

Me: I have WIS ASRA and nowhere does it say the fan has to come off... in fact I took the fan off by removing the allen bolts to see how much access there was and there is actually plenty.

Them: The mechanic says the fan needs to come off.

Me: No it doesn't.

Them: I'll let you talk to the mechanic.

This goes on....

The call ended with them telling me they were no longer willing to work on my car and would I please come and pick it up.

To be fair they didn't charge for the two hours that they apparently took wrestling with the viscous coupling.

I was absolutely livid at the end of this saga, and came away with a car having wasted a day and getting stressed. So how did the story end.

Well the crankshaft pulley is supposed to be an absolute b*****d to get off. I was so irritated I decided to have a go myself. Yes I am mechanically minded but had decided to leave this to the professionals because I didn't have the right tools.

Anyway I managed to remove it in about ten minutes without the mercedes special tool.

Went to halfords and bought a 24" breaker bar and a 17mm hex key...
opened bonnet and removed fan shroud. Next removed three allen bolts fixing fan to viscous coupling. Put a bit of plywood in front of the radiator to protect it from any flying tools. Moved the belt tensioner and removed the poly belt. Then for the fun. I wedged a cold chisel and a jemmy into the pulley, put the hex socket into the bolt and gave a heave on the breaker bar. The bolt gave instantly. Took bolt out gave the pulley a few taps with a rubber mallet, pulled it off and replaced everything in reverse order.

Only good thing about the experience is that I saved about £60, but the stress wasn't worth it.

 

[Ian B Walker]

Well we all know where to come now then dont we

(Good on ya, always a good feeling when it all comes together)

 

[stargazerplus]

Thanks Ian but I was really angry at the time. Instead of having a go at the pulley they were supposed to be working on they wasted so much time on something that was unnecessary. I do agree that removing the viscous coupling makes things a tiny bit easier but there was still plenty of access.

 

[grasmere]

well done mate - I know 'exactly' how you feel, but you'll be more satisfied about it now anyway

 

[Luke_D]

Good on you, always a good feeling when you do it

 

[moakesr]

Well done

It's amazing what you can achieve when a service provider lets you down, been there too many times myself and ended up doing the job myself.

Shame on Mercaid, it sounds like they threw their toys out of the pram when you indicated you knew what you were doing !

 

[grober]

There is a special tool for locking the fan pulley while you use the viscous coupling spanner to remove the LEFT HAND THREADED coupling nut . Its easy to make one up from some sheet steel. For a supposed merc specialist not to have one (bought or made) seems strange indeed. How did you lock the engine crank when undoing the pulley? If the pulley is on there very tightly it can be an issue. I think you have to lock the flywheel via the starting ring gear but fortunately this wasn't necessary on this occasion.

 

[Ian B Walker]

The other way to remove the bolt from the pulley is to put socket / allan key on nut, insert breaker bar onto tool then wedge breaker bar against chassis. Put key in ignition and turn engine over, magic, nut undone

 

[moakesr]

The other way to remove the bolt from the pulley is to put socket / allan key on nut, insert breaker bar onto tool then wedge breaker bar against chassis. Put key in ignition and turn engine over, magic, nut undone

Oh yes

Done that in the past, scared me silly when a mechanic friend told me about it, I disconnected the fuel pump relay so it couldn't run, however it worked perfectly. I arranged it so that the breaker bar was going to hit the ground as the engine turned over