Yesterday (Sunday) I did replace SC pulley (17%) on my 2005 MCS. Today (Monday) I was replacing valve cover gasket and after that I turn the car off just to see if there were any leaks. But I was seeing that belt was a little bit off of alignment (around idler pulley) does anybody could help me with this? Bad idler? Tensioner? I do have a picture which hopes everybody can see.
thanks

 

I doubt that your s/c pulley is fully seated on the s/c shaft.

 

I’ll check again

 

Is it possible you might need to run a different size (length) serpentine belt to go with it?

 

Also, old belt was missing one thread like it was so much rubbing that belt peeled off... but belt never came out by itself. So, still a SC pulley not aligning?

 

If it was doing this before you swapped in the new SC pulley, something else could (must) be wrong. With the belt removed have you checked the other accessories and their pulleys - alternator, AC, belt tensioner, and crankshaft dampener/pulley?

 

a bad idler pulley could cause that? Also, I remember when we took off the pin to get the belt, tensioner did not move that much like you could put back the pin just wiggling with not that much of effort... since I never installed a 17% pulley before with a shorter belt I thought it was normal.

 

If you can put the pin back in the second hole without using and just wiggling at the tensioner, it would seem either the tensioner is bad or the belt is oversized for the crank and SC pulley combination you're running. For reference, I have a JCW with a stock crank pulley and factory 11% undersized SC pulley that came with the car as built. This car runs the belt, a bit shorter than the stock MCS belt.

Aside but possibly related issue: does the crank pulley (or any other pulley) have any non-rotational play - side to side, in and out,anything but strictly rotational - in it with the belt removed? OEM dampener pulleys are notorious for failing catastrophically, literally splitting into separate halves front / rear. Mine went at 50K or so.

 

:S ok I’ll check that as well... I order a Ecs belt I guess it was 532... for a 17% pulley... which is shorter than stock or even 15%. I’ll check everything once the belt is off. Thanks :D

 

If you have a timing light, hook it up and use it. Invaluable for seeing what's going on in SLO MO SHUN.

 

My guess would be that either the pulley isn't on all the way, or when doing the pulley the shaft got pulled out some. So you really need to look at that to start with.

Also start a budget to get the ATI damper as you still have a stock crank pulley and you have that rust ring on it.

 

gotcha men, btw, what it means ATI damper... sorry I am new on this ;(

 

ATI Dampers. Expensive, but considered bullet proof enough you'll only need to do it once for the life of the engine. Available in standard and 2% oversize from a number of vendors on here and elsewhere. People also re-sell them used when they part out cars so you can watch the Mini Parts for Sale board and save some cash. Some also use the PRW / SFI (search YouTube's Mod MINI for his video on how to swap it out on an R53).

If you can swing it recommend try to get the removal and installation tools, purpose built specifically for our cars, also available from different vendors. Got mine here, worth the extra expense as it made the job very straight forward with no issues.

 

ATI Damper is the replacement, but also upgrade for the stock crank pulley as they are so common to fail.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/super-...ulley-r53.html

We've sold the PRW fluid dampers, but the last ones we have sold have all had fitment issues so we have put a hold on selling them as we don't want customers to damage their crank or get it stuck on halfway. That is why we still only use the ATI in our shop and recommend it.

 

oh wow... 😟 thanks for the info