A buddy had his belt tensioner explode today. This is what I found in the engine bay...








He said he heard a bang and then lost power steering. Luckily no collateral damage but the belt is wrapped so tightly around the crank it needs to be cut off.

He had the belt replaced 5k miles ago but didnt replace the pulleys. While I was in there I noticed his water pump was also going bad. He said he replaced it 10k miles / 4yrs ago. It ran free but I could see residue all over the top of it and the bearing had some play. Whats your vote:

A) A bad water pump bearing caused the tensioner to explode
B) A bad tensioner bearing caused the water pump to leak from excess vibration
C) None of the above. Just a ****ty day...


Note to self: replace those pulleys!!!

 

My guess is it was one of the pulleys gone bad since he already replace the water pump. How many pulleys are there?

 

any info on the car (year) and mileage?

 

Three.

 

My C2 when I bought it.

 

@4Driver4 hold ****. were they actually driving it like that?

@Fined its a 2005 C2S with 60-65k miles. His water pump confirms those things wear out more with age (every 4-5yrs) than miles.

 

Yup. I drove it a bit too. No issues. I'm not sure how it didn't throw the belt when the idler broke, but once it survived that, it was fine. No noise either.

 

Wow @4Driver4 !! Can't believe it was driveable, how did you notice it?

 

Car was totally fine. I didn't notice until I was checking the oil after I had bought it. The bearing was still fine and the belt had tension, so was fine...quiet too. I think I could have left it.

 

Parts from my sons '07 C2S. Idler pulley blew apart snapping the belt. Belt contacted the oil fill tube breaking it in two. The pulley wheel is a plastic material. After seeing that I had the tensioner and idler pulley's replaced when I had a new belt installed on my '06 C2S.