Crank Pulley

[relativelyprime]

Are crank pulleys known to go bad on the EP's? Someone told me the rubber dampener between the inner and outer section wasn't in the right spot on mine (90K miles and not flush with the pulley any more) and was rubbing on something causing stress on the crankshaft seal and a very small leak. They said I wouldn't have to fix at this point (could get some mileage out of it) but a new crank pulley should fix the problem. Anyone heard of this? I know pulleys aren't life of the engine things and you have to replace them, but I was just curious is this is something people have heard of.

[talonXracer]

The rubber ring will deteriorate, when it does rip entirely the pulley portion will slip on the center section and the alternator, A/C, and the most importantly the water pump will no longer be spinning.

BUT I seriously Doubt that is what is eating up the seal, the outer section is no where near the seal, and the seal can move while still providing a perfect seal for a far greater distance than the bearings will let the crank move. Your mechanic is talking some good BS out the side of his mouth......

[relativelyprime]

After I posted I called and told them to replace it if it was worn in any way (and they said they'd only charge me for the part $40) and not labor since they were doing other things. Figured it's better than having something go wrong. I stopped by quick before they closed and he showed me the old pulley. The rubber dampener thing was REALLY hard and cracking on one side and really soft and rubbery on the other. The thickness of the rubber was also significantly different if you ran your fingernail around it. You could feel low and high spots. He also showed me on the new pulley that the rubber actually sat farther out on one side than the old pulley. He said something about the inner portion of the pulley had slipped in on the dampener and was rubbing on something else. So, in other words, the two metal circles with the dampener in between were very much out of alignment with each other. Does that sound right at all? I guess for $40 and no labor charges not a huge deal! But I do like to know if they're pulling things over on me. They seemed to have been pretty good so far. Being I do most tune-up/maintenance things myself, I know more than most people about cars, but I really have no idea about what the crank pulley should look like or what could be "wrong" with it since I've never really looked at it closely before. Anyway, thanks for the help! Let me know if any of that sounds logical...or if you've seen anything similar happen on other EP's...

[talonXracer]

For that kind of cash, you are doing fine, as I said the pulley can go bad. See if your mechanic is planning on also changing the seal, seeing the crank pulley will be out.

[relativelyprime]

Yes, he was putting new seals in as well since it was out and since I had a small oil leak he's pretty sure was coming from around there.

[Deadphishy]

FYI that seal is like 4 bucks. so Don't let him charge you an arm and two legs.

[relativelyprime]

They had worked on the area a while ago and since it was only a few thousand miles were going through for basically nothing. So the seal was "free". You guys are good with these cars, by the way. I lurk from time to time and am impressed! :-)