1st Gen R53 Cooper S First Post... Tell me about my crank pulley!

It's hard to see until you take it off but with 106K miles I'd say that the rubber in the pulley is starting to come apart and soon will totally fail. Best to nip this in the bud and replace the crank the pulley. There are a few options besides the OEM. In no particular order you can find a solid one from various vendors, the ATI and a fluid filled version from RMW. All have their pros and cons.

Personally I would stay away from the solid ones, there is damping on the crank for a reason. I went with an ATI as it was needed fast and there was one locally to me when I needed it. From my understanding the fluid filled unit is at least equally as capable.

Welcome to M/A too, thanks for joining.

 

If the belt stops turning you mostly have a bad crank pulley. Not an unusual failure, especially at the mileage.

 

Low cost alternative [ame="http://www.amazon.com/PRW-2510900-FluidGel-Serpentine-2001-2006/dp/B004C0EEQU"]Amazon.com: PRW 2510900 FluidGel Black 138mm Serpentine Standard Drive Pulley Damper for BMW Mini Cooper, 2001-2006 Gen 1, Tritec 1.6L: Automotive@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IPI%2Bc-9dL.@@AMEPARAM@@51IPI%2Bc-9dL[/ame] , be sure the part# is 2510900 if you do a Google search for pricing; 901 is for the Cooper.

A couple tips for preparing the PRW Fluid Damper, inspect the shaft bore for burs or tool galling, remove scoring if needed. Prepare the leading edges of the pulley bore and crankshaft nose with very fine grit sandpaper, degrease the entire pulley well.

 

About 5-6 blocks from my house last Friday, I noticed my AC wasn't working well...

About 3 blocks from my house, I noticed the battery/charge light come on...

As I was pulling in the garage, steam started rising from over-boiling coolant.

How are all of these systems related? They all drive from the crank pulley! I'm at 72k miles and I was wondering when this ticking time-bomb would explode. I pulled the belt off this morning and was able to rotate the outter portion of the crank pulley without the center moving at all! Definately toasted!

Way is shipping one to me quickly. I've already got a write-up on how to replace the belt and that has about 1/2 of the steps already documented, so I hope to have a write-up in the MA library by some time next week.

 

Personally I like the fluid because of the way it balances through the rev range and you will note the smoothness. But both kinds are better than the OEM.

 

We actually sell both the Fluid Damper and the ATI damper, then we also have a custom 2% oversize ATI damper. I can tell you from using both of them that by far the ATI is a superior product in every way. Just looking at them side by side you'll see the ATI machining is a much tighter tolerance, and the press fit where the snout fits is always dead on. But then when you actually do some research on inertia damper like the ATI vs Fluid dampers you will find a lot of research and comparison has been done over the years and the ATI inertia style has proven to be better for actual dampening.

I personally have the ATI on both my race MINI and my daily driver. Also you'll find the RSR race team switched from the fluid damper to the ATI.

 

Well, my car has been sitting in the garage with the front right corner in the air since I checked the crank pully. Parts arrived, so I pulled the old pulley (a generic 3-prong puller for $18 + three M6x75mm bolts) and reinstalled the ATI pulley. Taking my time it took me 1.5 hour to finish the swap and put everything back together again.

It was cold and wet (well... cold for Dallas) and I kept spinning the wheels every time I tried for a quick start, but the car felt easier to drive... easier to find the clutch engagement point without engine shuddering (which I had noticed as a problem point for a month or so before the failure).

PS: The old pulley fell apart into 2 pieces when it came off.

 

How much experience do you have with these?

PRW looks to be a fairly recent company.

 

Summit racing sells the ATI for a mini for $338, best price I have seen on it.

 

Note: Your crank pulley should not separate into 2 pieces and should not look like this:

 

How many miles on that bad boy?

 

Almost 6 years and 72k miles on my Daily Driver + 6 track weekends.

When I took the front right wheel off, pulled back the fender liner and removed the belt, I could actually spin the outside ring (where the belt sits) while the crank stayed perfectly still. That's definately a sign of a bad pulley!

I've got to say that it is easier to shift more smoothly... that there is less juttering at the clutch engagement point. I had been noticing something funny for the past month or so there, and I was wondering if I was losing my touch.

 

The how-to article has been posted: http://www.motoringalliance.com/library/1st-generation-mini-cooper-how-to-3/replacing-the-crank-pulley-101/

 

Thanks for the INFO, I'm running a late model (05) new style, guess I'll be doing this again but good for now.
Next pulley will be a PRW.

 

When I initially read this thread title on my iPhone using FR it said "First Post...Tell me about my crank" :eek6: :lol:

Sorry. Back to the previous train of crank pulley thought...

Fantastic How-To posting, BTW.

 

If you have an impact wrench, that center pulley bolt is a snap to remove. If not, you may need to jimmy the wheel so it won't spin like in the pic w/ the ice chopper or you can have someone press on the brake pedal and it will be easier to remove. It's only tightened w/ 85ft-lb, but it has loc-tite blue, so it may be a bit of a challenge to break loose by hand. 15mm bolt.