Squeaking on idle - this pulley has seen better days

[Blobsta]

For some time now my car has had a kind of belt squeak when it's idling, of late it has got more and more noticeable and really quite loud. The noise would stop as you started to drive away but return as the engine returned to idle.

Yesterday, I had the bonnet up while the car was running and was screaming (internally) "WHAT IS THAT FLIPPIN SQUEAKIN'???"

2 minutes to unhook the belt and investigate revealed this rather dry bearing in the idler pulley.

Really just posting this to show you that this stuff does wear out and may not be as evident as mine was but it's well worth checking you're pulley bearings from time to time, it only takes a minute to do.

Click link for video with noise.
IMG_2578

Popped into my local dealership this afternoon for a replacement and am happy to report that the issue is resolved.

Not sure why I have so many parts when I only needed one thing...



Argh, it happened again!

All joking aside, My local dealership look after me really well (It helps to know the parts manager) but OEM isn't much more expensive in many cases and for me, the car is worth the spend, you get what you pay for.

 

[IanW]

Those of us less well-healed may prefer to carefully lever off the green seal, apply a suitable quantity of bearing grease & re-seal. Though I did eventually get round to buying and fitting new pulleys for the princely sum of £30 for the tensioner pulley and £15 for the idler.
Ian.

 

[slade1]

Change it, I had the I had the idler pulley let go with no warning and the shredded belt wrapped it self round the crankshaft between engine block and pulley causing even more problems.

 

[Jobsworth]

The extra heat from the dry bearing can degrade the plastic part of the pulley. Be aware if you are considering repacking. I’ve seen them split into two with predictable results. They are cheap as chips anyway

 

[Blobsta]

I tried greasing it. Less than 18 hours later the new part had been acquired as although I like to repair stuff for fun, it's been run dry for too long to risk it.

Did a service today and thought I'd post the pics of pattern service parts for info. The joke is that OEM parts even at retail isn't 20% more than this cr4p!

Oil filter was slightly too tall and so was crushed and not working as efficiently as it could (let alone how much less filtration area there was on this compared to Mercedes filter)

Fram air filter clearly didn't quite fit either and was torn when I removed the cover, it wasn't done by removal.

You can see how much less filtration area there is on the pattern filter compared to OEM too.

Plugs had a nice even crisp brownness to them so it all looks good from a combustion point of view. Not bad for almost 60k miles of use either.

You could argue that regular servicing with cheaper parts is better than not doing anything and I'd be inclined to agree with you, I'm not here to slate anyone or suggest that I am doing something better than others. In fact, quite the opposite I was very cross with myself for this as I did it!

When I bought the car it was an unknown and I thought I would quickly change the oil and filter, Mercedes were closed and my wallet was already stinging from the purchase, additional insurance (kept the car it replaced), £550 for road tax etc. Then I just forgot what I had put in it.

I don't know about you guys but for my daily driver, I do all the servicing and repairs so when it comes to doing the service, I rarely look too closely at what comes out, after all it is usually dripping something somewhere I don't want it! Today after I spotted that oil filter, I really looked at the used parts more closely than usual to see more of what they go through. All this has done is further cement my belief that when properly cared for, the machine can run and run but cutting corners rarely saves anything in the long run. Sadly, all vehicles depreciate to a point where they become affordable to the masses but the maintenance rarely gets any cheaper, there is then a trade off. Pretty sure a 15 year old Range Rover would be a case in point here and no, I've never had one and I'm not sure I'm brave enough either.

Hope this was interesting to some of you though.