Broken SC Pulley?

Driving home today i noticed i lost boost...being only two miles from home i figured i'd go and see what the fuss was about when i got home...

Well about 1/4 mile from home , my car stallls , locking up the tranny and scaring the piss out of me. I manage to start it again and make it home with no power steering. I look under the hood , both belts are mangled and my freaking supercharger pulley is missing! It snapped off of the hub...leaving two bolts...

How this happened i do not know but my car is out of commission for now and I've contacted intense to see what they can do as this will cost me at least 300 bucks... I'm considering taking the MPS hub off and just putting the stock pulley on after this ,as it has left a really bad taste in my mouth for modding 3800s.

I have the worst friggin luck with cars , and i really love this one , and i'm heartbroken right now.

Pics:

Wow, that is really odd. Sorry to hear that, Anthony. How is SC oil level? Almost makes me think the blower froze up. Can you turn the shaft?

Yeah i can turn the shaft. I haven't checked the oil level though.

Wonder if the mounting screws were loose. Changed the SC pulley lately. I've done that before!

Well that could be...but i haven't swapped the pulley since i put it on there months ago. I don't know... I just don't If the mounting screws were so loose than how come theres peices of pulley stuck behind them?

I forgot to tighten mine once, and the pulley vibrated all five screws loose (pretty violently). I could see it eventually braking at some point. But how'd yours get loosened up? Anyone under the hood lately?

No.. I did tuning today but didn't pop the hood. I haven't touched the belt since my mechanic put it on a few months ago... Again though i don't see how if those two screws are on there tight enough to have the puller break around them how the pulley could've popped off like that.

Upon closer inspection...it snapped the heads off the screws... I'll need a whole new MPS... if they don't send me one i'll probably just put the stock pulley back on and no more modding for me.

Do you have any of the pulley left? You might want to do a metallurigal test to see if there was any defect in the material.....


thats a total bummer though...

Pulley is completely gone.

Okay, here's what I think happened. An idler or tensioner pulley gave out, causing your SC belt to slip off. It then got wedged or jammed between the crank and the engine mount, creating a kind of wench that was also looped around your SC pulley. The motor cranked pressure on the belt, which tore the pulley right off the hub.

Maybe?

I did have an idler on its way out , but it seems to be in tact. Thats a good theory though AA...


Anyways an update from intense:


"We apologize that you had a problem with our pulley system. We have never seen a pulley break before but we have seen them snap the pulley bolts that hold them to the hub when those bolts are not secured and back out. This tends to cause the pulley to wobble and put weird strains on the bolts eventually causing them to snap and the pulley comes off. I have never heard of the pulley itself breaking before the bolts do."




"In any case even though you are outside of our 90 day warranty we will send you a new pulley along with new bolts and suggest that you tighten the bolts down securely once the belt is in place. We do not cover other charges such as labor or belts"

That is nice of them to send me a new pulley though.

Out of the thousands sold , i get the one defective one...

Notice in the thread where I introduced myself i said i have the worst luck with cars.....

I'm guessing that was from Scott C. He really goes out of his way in the customer service department. They really don't have to do that. A lot of companies wouldn't.

Guess you can continue modding now!

Do you still have the belt?

Still have the belts...
They are completely snapped though.

I most likely will continue modding. I needed to get the lower supercharger idler replaced anyway so really its only a minor setback as it would probably be the same labor for just that pulley.

It was Todd Allen.

If what Aaron says is true, you'll probably see some massive damage on those belts....

If the pulley was loose and started to wobble would that be cause for a belt to snap even if the pulley broke?

Montaniera wrote:

If what Aaron says is true, you'll probably see some massive damage on those belts....

If the pulley was loose and started to wobble would that be cause for a belt to snap even if the pulley broke?

I dont think the pulley was loose really... its possible though...

At any rate my pulley is on its way to me as we speak. I'm happy with the way they handled it.

I have a pulley 3.4 from a modular setup I want to get rid of. Let me know if you are interested. The screws are inexpensive to replace.

When I get to my pulley mod, I'm definetly going with Intense....great Customer service...

Sorry did not see you had another one on the way..

Montaniera wrote:

When I get to my pulley mod, I'm definetly going with Intense....great Customer service...

Yes I'm very happy with them. There are always gonna be defective products once in a while made my everyone , but intense seems to always make things right when a product fails.


At any rate i've heard zzp's screws are better... maybe now would be a good time to pick some up?

Wish you had caught this sooner...

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/for-sale-f22/free-mps-pulley-screw-allen-wrench-t1606.htm

ZZP's screws are better, but they're not free!

Hmmm...

as long as the belts are of, maybe time to check all the pulleys & replace as needed, especially that big hard to reach one down by the engine mount.

Albertj

Nice reply, what I'd expect from Intense. Why I like dealing with them.

I'd agree about the bolts not being tight enough. It spins at a high RPM and things can go any which way under that kind of spin and tension.

Another reason I like the pulley boys system - it's got a flat head bold instead of a pan head. The bolts are countersunk into the pulley and you have a much better feeling for tightness IMO.

dont give up tony, its not worth it. if i gave up would i be able to prove to all of your guys that thought my L36 was a bad idea. but i didnt give up and now that all look kinda stupid

also intense has great people, why do you think 90% of my parts for from intense. because they stand buy the product . why do you think i will continue to go with you, because i trust the products