1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Check Your Belt Tensioner Damper

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

 

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.

 

I have the Gates unit on my car now, FWIW. Looks and works like OEM.
I'll probably buy another as a spare.

 

Hey Scott,

I hate to break the news to you but the new ALTA tensioner part is just a small spherical bearing ended end link. Yes it offers tension for the belt but it it is not self adjusting i.e. manually adjusted and has no dampening at all. Just like the stupid solid lightened crack pulley they sell. ALTA makes very poorly engineered parts with cheap materials that will destroy a motors bearings via unhampered harmonics.

Back in the day when I was nieve and looking to upgrade my new Mini I too found ALTA parts and bought them. Every single part was of poor quality and failed or did not fit correctly.

I give ALTA crap because I call it the way I see it. I also do not want others that are new to the Mini community make the same mistakes it I did and waste money on crap parts.

 

Oh we all know your opinion of Alta....seriously.

I know what the damper replacement is, and I stand by my opinion. We all ran un-dampered/tensionered engines for years w/o issue AS LONG as you checked the tension periodically and made any adjustments necessary. Remember checking the alternator for proper belt tension? All the current OEM design does is to supposedly eliminate the need for periodic maintenance.

And I completely agree with you about the crank pulley and some other parts, but my experience with a few of their parts has been just fine. I just refrain from giving a blanket statement like you do of them.

 

Well to each their own.

 

back from the dead.
i removed engine from my 05 JCW and see tensioner shock is completely dead
started brousing and found this. wonder if it has the same dimensions?:

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-r129-w140-w201-w202-w126-w124-Belt-Tensioner-Shock-oem-Stabilus-new/281564893958?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37338%26meid%3D96ee09ad53f54899ba3745d22d01c2c2%26pid%3D100085%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D281725159108%26clkid%3D6586628990479736461&_qi=RTM2247628"]http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-r129-w140-w201-w202-w126-w124-Belt-Tensioner-Shock-oem-Stabilus-new/281564893958?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37338%26meid%3D96ee09ad53f54899ba3745d22d01c2c2%26pid%3D100085%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D281725159108%26clkid%3D6586628990479736461&_qi=RTM2247628[/ame]

 

back from the dead.
i removed engine from my 05 JCW and see tensioner shock is completely dead
started browsing and found this. made in Germany by the same company. wonder if it has the same dimensions?:

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-r129-w140-w201-w202-w126-w124-Belt-Tensioner-Shock-oem-Stabilus-new/281564893958?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37338%26meid%3D96ee09ad53f54899ba3745d22d01c2c2%26pid%3D100085%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D281725159108%26clkid%3D6586628990479736461&_qi=RTM2247628"]http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-r129-w140-w201-w202-w126-w124-Belt-Tensioner-Shock-oem-Stabilus-new/281564893958?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37338%26meid%3D96ee09ad53f54899ba3745d22d01c2c2%26pid%3D100085%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D281725159108%26clkid%3D6586628990479736461&_qi=RTM2247628[/ame]

 

I now replace mine every two years along with a new belt since I do not drive my MINI as much as I used to since I work from home.

 

The entire assembly or just the damper?

 

The whole assembly because they same part are cheap on Amazon Vs the Dealership. ($225.00 + at dealership)

The belt for a 15% pulley is: Gates K060535 Multi V-Groove Belt https://www.amazon.com/Gates-K060535-Multi-V-Groove-Belt/dp/B000C2SIXC/ref=pd_bxgy_263_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VA1K8WSC2V16TYVVRGD5

$92.00 https://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-38404-Professional-Automatic-Tensioner/dp/B001KSDZOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467728792&sr=8-1&keywords=MINI+belt+tensioner

Gates tensioner $129.78 https://www.amazon.com/Gates-38404-Belt-Tensioner/dp/B001KQJRDO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1467728792&sr=8-3&keywords=MINI+belt+tensioner

BMW part $158.09 + $12.55 shipping
: https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Drive-Belt-Tensioner-Pulley/dp/B016J1FWM4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1467728792&sr=8-8&keywords=MINI+belt+tensioner