As soon you get the parts let us know. I think it will be a good safety device for the tensioning arm. Also, I will get other brand of belt instead of Gatorback. Henry

 

Hello!!

Ok, this is the information for the Tensioner limit stop bar.

You don't need to jack the engine up or remove the engine bolts. You do not need to remove the belt or the tensioner. It can be done without releasing the tension; it's a little easier to do one bolt at time. You need to jack the car up and remove the right front tire and the fender liner like 91eunos did for the crank installation. Park the car with wheels cranked to the right. Remove the four plastic expanding rivets in the fender liner, three in front, and one on the inside. Remove the Philips head screw directly above the tire, use a stubby screwdriver. Remove the Philips head screw that holds the front of the fender liner, it's a little to the right of the fog lamp area, under the bumper cover, use the stubby here too. Gently pull the fender liner away from the body and around the sensor wire.
You should be able to see and access the front bolt for the tensioner"shock" the rear one can be reached from behind the engine. You will have plenty of space to work around and just thread a bolt in from the backside where the slotted end of the stop will go, and use a lock nut.
Make sure that you have enough play to let the tensioner move freely. Few people are complaining about the bar adapter getting a little bit loose and vibrating and I think that we can fix that with a little bit of blue Loctite on the threats or just thread a bolt in from the backside where the slotted end of the stopwill go, and used a lock nut.
So far two types of tensioner limit bars stop available 1. Mymini and GT Tunning 2. The cable limiter stop from detroituned.
Well let me know if you have more ideas on how to install this limiter stop. Henry

 

I have one on order as well. I'll let you know if I run into any problems when I get it. Thanks for the links Henry.

 

Hello!!
Ok... Today I changed the engine oil and the Mymini tensioner stop bar. It was an easy installation. Lift the car; remove the front right wheel and the fender plastic liner. Next remove the bottom bolt of the dampener and install the stop bar on top of the tensioner dampener. You do not have to remove the serpentine belt at all, because is not a lot of tension on the tensioner dampener. I used the red loctite to make sure the bolt will stay in place with the vibration of the engine. I was not able to use the torque wrench, because it was a little or no space to fit the 13 MM socket. So, I used a 13mm open wrench to remove the two bolts. When at last I put the top bolt, I was afraid of not free play of the stop bar, but do not worry you will have plenty of free play of the stop bar. Just pull the serpentine belt with your hand and you will see the stop bar moving as designed. So make sure that you use red loctite and do not over or under torque the bolts. It took me over an hour on the safe side to install the stop bar. The oil change was pretty easy and I did not spill any drop of oil. Just make sure that you remove the filter slowly with the 36mm socket.
Henry

 

A quick question!!
My car is out of warranty with 15000 miles and due for service in 6000. My dealer estimate 260.00 Euros for that service. What are implied on that service? And can I do it myself; any way is out of warranty.

Thanks Henry

 

Well I'm finally back from Africa and had the car a whole 24-hours before shredding my belt too! Ironic since Chris drove it the entire time I was gone w/zero issues. but thems the breaks...

I was pulling away from my building on Wednesday when I heard a high pitched whizzing sound then a slapping sound followed by loss of power steering and the battery charge light...hmmm, I wonder what could cause that!

After borrowing a car to run to the BMW dealership to get a new belt (got the JCW-spec belt to get in the ball park on size) I towed it to the base hobby shop (belt failed in my office parking lot) and commenced what I hoped to be a 10-minute fix. Got the car jacked up and pulled the fender liner to access the pulleys easier and 2 things happened in short order. First Henry's bar snapped at the weld (where the bar fits over the supercharger pulley)--though I was able to get the pin in the spring before it failed completely--then as I took the old belt off I noticed it wasn't completely shredded...the outer 2 ribs had started to peel off. Hmmm, that's odd...

So as I went to put the new belt on I noticed that the crank pulley wasn't exactly in line w/the rest of the pulleys...then I noticed that the crank pulley bolt wasn't even finger tight! Still there, but spinning freely. I was able to thread it out by hand but then couldn't get the crank pulley to seat back all the way onto the crank...sound familiar?

I got a foot-long piece of 4"x4" wood and a BFH to "tap" the crank pulley back on but it wouldn't budge. Rather than force it I stopped and towed it home. Went back to the BMW dealership to order the bar (to replace Henry's) and the official BMW crank puller/thread protector but they said I had to order that through their service department manager (because it's a BMW tool vs. a part) and he wouldn't be back until after Easter! Rather than do the **** dance w/another dealer I called CMS and they got rolling... BTW guys, if you read this please ship the bar straight to Henry...I'll call you w/the address in the AM and send an e-mail too. I'll have his old one welded at the break to use for the rest of this project, then frame it w/the original stock pulley I've dubbed "Scar Face!"

As far as I can tell the factory thread locking compound simply didn't do its job (the powder-like blue stuff on the new factory bolt) and it allowed the bolt to back out which in turn allowed the crank pulley to slowly walk out as well...it was only a matter of time before the offset was enough to cause teh belt to start to shear. I was lucky that it happened on base and not out in the middle of nowhere I suppose.

I should have taken a wire brush to the stock bolt to get that crap off and used Locktite Red...I have a new bottle of that now for the re-attack!

I'm also waiting for the factory puller to take the Alta crank pulley off to make sure there's no damage to the crank nose (again!) before buttoning everything up yet again.

Another thing I've thought about is that I wonder if I inadvertantly got a belt for the 19% supercharger pulley (much smaller than stock) vs the 17% smaller supercharger pulley/2% larger crank pulley combo that I actually have. That should = ~ 15% smaller belt by my calculations which is damn close to the stock JCW belt. I'll have a skull session w/the CMS guys to see what they think...maybe the belt was too tight and exacerbated the stress on the weak-sauce thread locking compound on the new factory bolt.

Regardless, no real damage done except Henry's wait for his new tension-reliever bar... I owe you man. Sorry for the extended delay.

 

Talked to brad and Steve... and think I know what happened.

Remember when I said "Damn this Alta pulley's tight too!" and put some engine assembly lube on the crank nose before tapping the pulley on? Well that very likely caused the pulley to spin which in turn walked the bolt out enough to shred the belt. D'oh!

Exacerbating this of course is the fact that BMW decided to use standard threads on the crank nose instead of reverse threads which would get tighter if it spun...hell they could have at least put a woodruff key/keyway in the crank pulley like the Japanese do!

I'll put the crank pulley back on nice and dry (tight)! I'll use the new bolt to snug it down then another (never used) new bolt to hold it in place. I still plan to take the factory blue crap off and use Locktite Red for teh next round.

OBTW...ordered an Alta V2 intake too!

Suspension mods next!

 

Loctite Red FTW!

 

I know it's odd to quote myself but I was looking at my Bentley manual again this morning and notice there's an arrow along side the belt routing diagram indicating clockwise rotation (as observed from the pax side of the car looking at the "front" of the engine).

If that's the case then standard threads should get tighter not looser if the pulley spun, yes?

 

91eunos!!
I got your message. Thanks

For the Crank Pulley; you need to torque down the bolt to 115Nm making sure that you use plenty of the Red Loctite. Also BMW recommend replacing the crank bolt. Henry

 

Crank rotates clockwise when facing the pulley, if the pulley slips it is equivalent to rotating ccw which will unscrew the bolt. I've never used red loctite on the bolt, but I always use a new bolt and torque to 115 Nm/85 lbs-ft. I've installed a lot of crank pulleys and have only had a problem with spinning after receiving a batch of defective pulleys. There is a certain amount of variation in the pulleys, so if I find one that goes on too easily, I use another. It's hard to describe what is too easy, but if you don't have to crank hard to press the pulley on, it's too loose. Good luck.

Steve

 

I really appreciate your patience Henry...brand new bar on the way to you as soon as it shows up at CMS (today?). I have your old (broken) one welded up and can get it to you if you need it right away.

I start my new job at NATO tomorrow but will hand deliver your old one to you along w/the beverage of your choice (well, anything less than $100 anyway!) if you need it...any time after work tomorrow.

 

Hey, when's track day?

 

As soon as I get my pulley r&r'd!

On the other hand, just found out after 1 week on the new job that I'm definitely deploying in July...only until mid-November but there goes this summer at the 'Ring.