Unless your 11 year old crank pulley keeps eating them! The last one I put on lasted 3 days and about 1000 miles... When I got home it was a 5 rib shoe lace again! ATI from the original motor is going on over the weekend.
Ok since you won't believe me do the same test I did. Screw the tensioner to a board just like you would as if you mounted back on your car. Then use your tensioner tool to pull the pin. Then use a set of good pair of sharp cutting dykes and cut the tab off. After you open your eyes you will believe it's a myth. I took my bushing out and they did the test. It's all fear marketing and BS. If it wasn't don't you think BMW /MINI or much better aftermarket MINI parts vendors would make them? Hell everyone would be paying $75.00 for the OEM JCW version. :lol: I am not lying and I have nothing to gain, I am just trying to help other R53 owners from wasting money.
Dave, I did it before I pulled it off the car to test "the myth". The stop came with in 3mm of the factory crank pulley. The ATI unit is larger in diameter than the factory so the chances of it hitting is eminent. If you think about the momentum of the assembly at the moment the belt brakes, it will overextend further than it would in a controlled environment. I appreciate your point of view, but the piece of mind I get from having it on there is worth the $20.
I always hear about belts braking but how long are people keeping the the belts on their cars. I don't really think the tensioner stops hurt but if you are doing proper maintenance you don't need one. But hay to each there own. You will like the ATI crank pulley, I love mine.
^^^^ and this is why I change my belt every year in the Spring before the Dragon. I also change the tensioner every year at the same time. I have the ATI crank damper also.
A tensioner stop is only helpful if you a have a light weight alum crank pulley. the ATI and others like it are Metal and it will not get damaged if the tensioner does fail, but more than likely it's because you need a belt. inspect the belt often and you will not have a problem. Chad Detroit Tuned
Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to neglect my car. I am a maintenance technician at a high speed water bottling company. Our production machines have a lot of rotating parts that put out bottles at over 1200 containers per minute. I have seen first hand what happens when something "let's go" at speed and I'm usually the one who has to fix the carnage. Even though our machines are well maintained and are PM'ed on a weekly basis, you still can't account for every faulty part and how or even when it's going to break. The best way to prevent major damage in that situation, is to install a safeguard to protect other components when possible to keep repair costs and downtime to a minimum. If my belt was to break on my way to work tonight, (which it shouldn't, I just installed a new Gates belt) I can install my spare belt that I keep in the car and still make it home. If my belt breaks and the crank pully and tensioner get damaged, then I'm gonna have to call a tow truck to get home. That's just my point of vew.
The tensioner pulley most definitely will hit the crank pulley simply because the spring will force it down at speed because of the tension. Saw it happen on mine the first time I went to swap out the tensioner after the tab stop I put in slipped out after taking the belt off. In regards to the belt maintenance........no one has ever heard of one getting eaten up from a piece of debris caught in one of the pulleys?
Yup...noticed that when I did mine.... Just proves how crappy the OEM design is, and how good the ATI is!!ostcount