dan_bourne

Well, as you do, gave it some beans, and suddenly, small bang/pop, no boost, instantly think, oh that's ok, boost pipe has come undone....

Then, get to junction, car stalls as so much drag on the belts, manage to push it off the main road and into a less main road and into none other than a Ferrari tuning/maintenance place, lucky doesn't even come into it.

So anyway, pop the bonnet, take a look, no pipes have blown off, but notice the supercharger belt has moved over 1 tooth on one of the top pulleys, further inspection reveals the the pulley on the back of the supercharger has sheared itself right off, and mangled a few bits on its way.

I go into reception and ask if I can speak to an engineer, she goes and gets one (very attractive receptionist as it goes, so it wasn't all bad), by this point I've decided to cut the belt off and remove the top pulley to try and get the broken sc pulley out, so ask if I can borrow a few tools, 17mm socket, 10mm spanner, knife, flat headed screwdriver + Allen keys.

After about 5 mins I realise I'm gonna have to take the whole plate off and so 20 mins later everything is off, I've bolted a bit of pipe with my filter to the throttle body and I'm on my way, 5 mins back to my house if that! What a palava that was, on closer inspection the pulley had cracked previously around 60% of the way round the bolt as it was a bit rusty and only 40% was shiny metal from just shearing, so it was only a matter of time,

I can't believe I didn't have my tool kit, took it out 2 days ago to fiddle with something and didn't put it back, won't be making that mistake again.

Anyway, I have my new charger to go on now, (and only last week did I replace all the bearings and tensioner on the sc setup, so all that's brand spankers! but is there anything I should replace on the engine side of things while I've got the plate off?

was thinking -

aux belt
Water pump
Belt tensioner
Idler pulley
And as mine is the old tts back plate, isn't there some new bracket or something I should use instead of the one that goes through the idler pulley that is stronger?

Just do it all so I don't have to do it again?

Thanks for reading guys, and any advice on anything would be greatly received!

Dan.

WinFreak

Is it me or are there a lot of pulley problems on the forum here nowadays?

s2konroids

Comptech FTW

Watch mine will blow now!

dan_bourne

Wasn't an idler pulley, was the actual one attached to the back of the charger...

Not a common failure at all..

Nick Graves

That was nice of them to lend you tools.

Makes me more inclined to consider a Ferrari.

Was that yer actual Rotrex pulley that failed?

dan_bourne

Yes it was!

And yes it was nice of them, it's a word of mouth business, all gated, but it's local so a few car people know it's there, as I wandered round I wish I could have taken some pictures, 2 enzo's that I saw, and about 20 others of varying value, some amazing machinery in there, feel quite lucky to have gone in tbh, I almost asked if I could Take some photos and was gonna post them up here, but thought that might be a bit cheeky! They were already moody anyway, probably due to the fact they had a poupers 10-15k car outside! Haha

Nick Graves

More like they don't like some bloke they dunno touching their tools!

(unlike in the gentlemen's toilet in Ladbroke Grove...)

First Rotrex failure Ive heard of. I wonder if a vibration or misalignment caused fatigue, rather than 'normal' corrosion.

Kawasakivtec

Actually it is a well known issue on the early installs, after finding the issue the later installs should have a pulley which is thicker!

dan_bourne

Kawasakivtec has it right, the pulley was too thin on the early one, they changed it at some point, handily my new charger has the thicker pulley ; )

dan_bourne

Does anyone know a product code/supplier for a new supercharger belt? I did ring tts, but tbh, id rather not spend £60+vat (seems a bit steep, as per) on a belt if I can help it, think it's 1400mm but will confirm tomorrow....