1st Gen R53 Cooper S Check Your Belt Tensioner Damper

How many miles on your MINI? Glad you solved your issue.

 

Mine went dead after only about 25K.

Seriously looking at the Alta damper replacement part next time this fails.

 

Are you talking about the belt tensioner or the crank pulley?

Just bought an aftermarket fluid damper (crank pulley) myself. This one is a much needed improvement from the stock one, and will not need replacing.

Will have that put in after the holidays. It hasn't failed, but it's a known point of failure and I'm a believer in upgrading before something fails and takes out other things

I would think modding and doing a reduction pulley would decrease the life of the damper.

 

DO NOT try the Alta one.....
There is a reason it's dampered.
And not to insult anyone out there, but I do not like Alta products :nonod:

 

So tell us why....you must have all sorts of personal experience with it.

 

Are you refering to why I don't like Alta products?
If everything you hear about a company is bad, then I'm gonna shy away from it.

 

Minsanity - what part specifically are you referring to? The only related Alta part I'm aware of is a tensioner stop, not a replacement tensioner... Am I missing something?

 

FYI we now have our own WMW belt damper bushings made of delrin so they won't break or wear out.

As for the alta tensioner bar it does not work correctly. Since it is fixed in length the belt tension will not change at different loads like the tensioner is designed to work. depending on load the belt will be either under tensioned or over tensioned based on how tight the rod is. Not a good design in my opinion.

 

The bushings don't help with the damper life. I could see a benefit to a damper system on a more serpentine belt, but our belt doesn't run a lot of pulleys.

As to the whole Alta hate going around, unless you have personal experience, don't propagate the hate.

 

Not spreading hate... Just saying that I don't like them. Whatever my reasoning is on me. Do what you like with your money.

 

And again.....do you have any personal experience with any of their products or are you simply repeating what your buddy Dave says?

 

If it was just one person, then that wouldn't really hold as much weight.

But I'm not going to argue with you. I have my trusted vendors I use. Period.

Happy holidays.

 

No sense arguing with the defenders of Alta....

Vote with your wallet & buy from who you like. It has worked well for me.

 

Way and I don't agree on everything, but we agree on this... That belt does need a damped tensioner. Otherwise BMW would have saved the money. If you've ever watched it bouncing when the damper is bad, even at idle, you should understand why. The belt and belt-driven accessories are a VERY dynamic system. Load and drive torque changes constantly. The belt can't absorb all that... At least not for long.

 

Well the way I see it the Alta item gets rid of the need for the safety feature which is a plus and the bushings that go bad another plus, but I am with Way on its function, I dont think its a good idea.

 

Let me make this very clear......I don't like all of Alta's products or their customer service. What I really don't like is the constant bashing from a few vocal folks that tend to voice a very strong opinion on most anything regardless of the nature of the OP. My couple of Alts parts have performed as designed and have lasted. And these are the only parts I personally will endorse....cause I have them.

I agree with AliceCooper on the pluses and the negative could be taken care of by simple routine maintenance as I believe the only reason to have this type of tensioner is to try and eliminate any need to adjust the tension periodically to adjust for belt size change.