My Maxima is still in the shop, the mechanics said the reason the belt came off the tracks is because the aluminum pulleys warped. Yeah, these are the ones from DanNY. I've had them since June 2002, so they lasted about 10 months. According to the mechanic, the rim of the pulleys are concave, so the belt slipped off. I lived in Houston, TX from June 2002 to January 2003. From Feb 2003 to now, I've been in Wyoming. Not exacty the mohave desert here, it snowed last week. So I'm kind of baffled that the pulleys warped from heat. I'm on stock pulley running 4.5psi boost, and I don't boost often.

I guess this is just a warning to anyone buying aluminum pulleys, yes they can warp, just like the stock rubber pullies.

Since I don't feel like spending another $160 for a new set of aluminum pulleys that will probably warp, the SC is coming off until I sell the car this summer.

 

mine's not smooth either, but it does not cause any problem like this because the tension of the belt kept it on there. Stock plastic pulley melts, btw. How bad is your pulley now? got a picture?

plastic pulley
http://www.boostedmaximas.com/jane97..._pulley/03.jpg


anyways...good to hear that you are doing well over there. you were busy at work that's why you werent online. I just got a promotion recently and they've been giving me a lot of work. I havent done anything to my car since the CAI. Just changed the spark plugs (btw, thx for your write-up, pretty handy) and that's about it. I got severl other things on my list. fuel pressure gauge my next toy.

about the pulley swap...shops uses air tools, which are handy to take the bolts off the bracket. But, if they are lazy and use air tools to put the bolts back, it will be impossible to take them off in the future. I would ask them to hand tighten everything and apply some anti-sieze to the bolts. If they have to gun the bolt to the pulley with air tools, make sure that they use the lowest setting. the best way will be using a strap wrench(the wrench with a belt) to hold the pulley and hand-tighten the bolt.

So getting the STi soon? 300bhp.

 

I used an aluminum pulley from lexus.. It's twice the size of the one that stillen gives.. Never have to worry about belt slipping or pulley melting

 

one of em max tuning pulleys heh ?

 

Congratulations on the promotion, I guess that means more money for mods . Too bad that the higher you go, the more of your life you give up to the job. I'm feeling that right now, and I'm not even that high up!

I thought about putting the stock plastic pulleys on, but if the aluminum pulleys can warp due to the heat in Wyoming, then the plastic ones wouldn't last long. I'm not even considering getting the Asp pulleys, because if the belt breaks again and I'm on a long stretch of uninhabited highway between Wyoming and Utah, I'm screwed. I just need a car that works so I can get to work. So I plan to have the mechanic remove the SC, and go back to stock. I already have new stock-length drive belts.

Another bad thing is that the shop quoted $200 for the install, thinking it would be a 4 hour install. I think it took about that long for them to just take the SC off. So I don't even know how much they want to charge me to get the car running again, and since we're in Wyoming, they work mostly on domestics, so getting the Maxima back to stock might take a while. The rental car is going to cost me $250 for 4 days. Wow I'm having a sh*tty day.

 

Which pulley did you replace with the Lexus pulley? Both?

 

i think its the idler.. i think...

 

can you post a picture of that pulley up close, from what I know those pulleys are made of strong alloy. Also the pulleys just route the belt so I am trying to see how in the hell did that rubber belt caved the alloy pulley at an angle

 

I'll post pictures of the warped pulley once I get the car back. I don't want to trash on DanNY's former product, I'm just keeping it real and telling it how it is. Aluminum pulleys can fail too, so don't just slap them in and forget about it.

edit: Forgot to respond about the STi. Looks like people are very interested in this car so the waiting lines are getting long for the STi. Deposit is only $500 at most dealers I've checked, but I'd be 4th in line even at the remote dealers. If I can find one for MSRP, I'll get one, otherwise, maybe a regular 2004 WRX will be ok.

 

Yeah, I'd like to see it too. I'm wondering if it's the tensioner pulley that warped, allowing the belt to fall off and get too much slack. I'll post pictures of the pulley once I get them back.

 

Congrats!

 

ok just to clear it up..
the alum are billet alum. it's the same grade made for aircraft parts.

now they are not there to withstand the pressure of incorrect tension, incorrect install, incorrect tools used on it.

Tan how did you or your shop install the pulley?
the ONLY way the pulley would wear unevenly or concave is incorrect belt tension or belt alignment.

think of a tire..if it's perfectly aligned then it wears flat the entire way across.
now if you have bad toe or camber problem..it'll wear just the inside and not the outside part...so then the wear pattern will be slanted towards the inside.

i'm not pointing fingers here because it's not my style. improper tension and belt alignment will cause the pulley to over heat and fail since you're riding only on one spot of the pulley constantly, instead of the entire surface...add high tension on the belt and it'll over heat anything. also this points to the reason why you have uneven wear on the pullies themselves.

when i sold the pullies i mentioned to every person that bought them that belt tension and alignment is VERY VERY important to the life of the pullies.

tan if you can or want send them back and i can take a look and see what happened to the pullies. if not please take pics of your pullies and also your broken fan belt.
thanks!
Dan

 

Its not the outside temperature that would do it, its the heat generated between the pully and the belt that you need to worry about.

 

thx Kevin!




thx...I agree, the higher you go, the more of my personal time it spent on the job. They want me to do certain amount of work but I have to try to avoid using overtime. So I ended up taking stuff back home or working on it while I am in the train.

more money for my car? hehehe...I think I have to stop at a certain point. my car is still a daily driving car and the more I modded it, the more unreliable it becomes.

make sure you will drop by sometime when you have the sti.

 

http://www.sweetwaterhsa.com/~tho1/images/pulleys/

Dan, I'm pretty frustrated with the whole thing, partly because there's only one tuner shop in all of southwest Wyoming and they're too busy and not very talkative (could be because I'm asian and they don't see much of my kind 'round here abouts), so I don't mean to slam your products, just letting people know that this sort of thing can happen.

For now, I'm having the SC removed and returning the Maxima to stock as far as engine mods go. I will sell the SC sometime sooner or later, then trade the car in this summer. If I get tired of being beat off the line by minivans, I might trade it in sooner.

 

About the pulleys and the belt slipping off, according to the mechanic, the pulley bearings were loose on their bolts, so the belt fell off the pulleys. The belt was the proper tension as far as I could tell, maybe a little tighter than spec. One possible scenario is that the pressure of the belt tension caused the bearings to slide out and the bolts to come loose, then the belts slid along the pulleys unevenly and caused the concavity. Another is that belts ate into the pulleys, causing them to vibrate and spin unevenly, causing the pulley bearing and retaining bolts to come loose.

As for the bearings being loose in the pulleys, not sure what caused that.

 

The most likely case for uneven wear on the tensioner pulley would be that the rear part of the shaft of the bolt is not set properly. The are of the shaft behind the mounting plate has about a 1/2 inch groove that slides in the up and down adjustment area. I know when I installed my metal asp pullies it took 4-5 times with my finger behind the plate holding the bolt in the groove so that it would not rotate and "unseat" itself. It will fit and threads will be enough with it not seated properly and you will be able to put adequate tension on the belt but the angle would be off slightly and more prone to failure and belt misalignment. Those who have installed s/c and pullies know what I mean this is critical and sometimes frustrating part of belt installation especially if you are using a shorter than expected belt.

 

Ok, so I did the 90-degree test on th belt tension before start up, and I'm using the so-called "polyurethane" pulleys that Stillen supposedly now supplies in their V2 kits, is a little loose than specs better for mlting pullies than a little tighter than specs?

-Ben

 

I have never seen no **** like that before, the tensioner pulley is caved in at an angle

in any case I dont know how far is wyoming from here cause I dont have a map in front of me, I d be more then happy to solve that headache for you and talk about it and let you look for yourself etc..but thats fcked up people are still like that these days.

Why are your bearings about popped off?

 

I'd think looser than spec would be more prone to having the belt hop off the tracks, but tighter than spec can cause the problem I had.

 

Yeah, pretty freaky eh. If the bolts holding the pulleys were loose, then the tension of the belt pulling on the pulleys would cause the pulleys to shift, so the belt would rub the pulley at an angle, causing what you see in the pictures. Not sure how the bolts came loose, maybe they weren't tight enough, or maybe they rattled loose (no loctite?).

I've often wished I was in Louisiana, Atlanta, CA, or NY, so I could go by one of the shops I always hear about on the org. Instead I have to use shops where the mechanics have never worked on a Stillen\Vortech SC, and pray they get it right. So far, so bad.

I'm going to check with the mechanic and see if he popped the bearings out when taking them off, or if they were like that. I'd guess it's choice 1, but he said the bearings were loose in the pulleys.

 

I ll give you a word of advice, removing the blower is just time consuming not hard, if you have enough I can and heart you can fix that SCer. But you must want to do it. Instead of paying that shop who probably didnt do a good job you could the work yourself. In all what you pay the shop you can buy a set of tools and have money left to enjoy life try it one day and youll see, it is a simple puzzle all you need is time

 

Well, the shop has removed most of the SC already. They can't find the alternator bracket, so they had to order it, so my car will be down until Monday or Tuesday. All for one lousy alternator bracket. Sigh.

I think the main problem came from the idiots at Alamo Autosports in Arlington Texas. They originally installed the SC on my car last June. Anyone in Dallas or Texas, beware that shop. Sloppy bunch of hacks who lost parts, did a half-azz job, and deserve to be put out of business.

If I can afford a second car this summer, I will keep the Maxima and reinstall the SC myself for practice. Biggest problems are, no garage to work in, no privacy, it's windy and dusty all the time, and my scrawny arms. Oh well.

 

Hi Tan:
you know what? my pulleys are very close to that, not as curvey as yours. IMO, it is just the nature of these pulleys after prolong use. In fact, I wonder if this curve will actually help in securing the belt.
about the loose bearing....does your mechanic mean it wobbles when it is installed? if so, mine does that do... but if the belt tension is kept, then this shouldnt be a problem.


good luck to you, Tan~ sad to see you leaving the boosted maxima community

thank you for all your help. come by and visit us once a while.

 

Tan it's ok...i understand your frustration. i wish i can help you more.

those bearings have retainers that holds them in the pulley itself. looks like those retainers are longgggg gone. i don't understand why that happened.
from the looks of the wear on the pullies the belt seems to have been a little tight and off centered. but what maxioverdose said the "wear" helps to keep the belt on the pulley.

keep in mind these pullies are not put them on and forget it affair.

imagine what would have happened if you have plastic pullies on that thing. you would probably eat through them in a month.

tan if you can please send them back and i'll have it checked out why the bearings fell out.
thanks!
Dan