[16falcon]

I am going to have the 32 towed to the dealer in the morning but I thought I would get input from you guys and gals here before I show up there. Drive belt started squeeking recently, I had planned to change it out since it is the original. Wife was driving the car today and said it was making a sound that from the inside was like a rattle/rumble shortly before she arrived home. When I came out it smelled hot. When I popped the hood I found these two rubber pieces and metal shavings below the front of the engine as can be seen in the second photo. Where do the rubber pieces go? Any idea how bad this is going to be? Do I need to get a second mortgage on the house? I just thought I would see if anyone here had any idea how serious the damage might be. Thanks.

 

[430]

Stock crank pulley went bad as they are known to do. If you can wait now is the time to upgrade your pulley.

Mine went bad and was replaced under warranty. About 3k miles later I upgraded the pulleys.

 

[Bruce R.]

I'm not sure, but wasn't there a recall on at least some of them? If you say something you might get a freebie, or maybe something off the bill....

 

[16falcon]

I'm not sure, but wasn't there a recall on at least some of them? If you say something you might get a freebie, or maybe something off the bill....

Thanks for the info Bruce. Mine is one of the earliest SLK32s, May of 2001, so it might be one of the effected ones. I'll give you an update in a couple of days when I know more.

 

[Guest]

I feel for you. I just went through something similar. I had the same rattle and although I got it repaired before it completely broke, it was on the way. The pulleys are the weak link on the engine. My MB mechanic would agree with 430. I have an early 32 and I don't remember ever seeing any recall on the 32 pulley's. ??

Mine has a little more than 20K and I lost the idler pulley and super charger housing/bearing/pulley. The car will be 7 in July. MB picked up the SC components, I pick up the idler and belt. SC part was almost 1K. Thank you MB. It had been redesigned. I figure in time the others will fail.

How many mile on yours?

 

[16falcon]

Only 45,000 miles. You wouldn't think engine parts on a MB would start falling apart this soon.

 

[Guest]

Only 45,000 miles. You wouldn't think engine parts on a MB would start falling apart this soon.

That's what I keep telling myself, especially when I have a twelve year old 4runner that I've, 4 wheeled, hunted, camp in, etc. Just had to replace the starter contacts, but otherwise flawless, beyond front brake pads, filters etc.

You'd think that after 100 years they'd have the little things down, but unfortunately, Toyota doesn't make anything like the SLK32 AMG.

Hopefully, your not looking at too much.

 

[Guest]

I don't remember there's a recall on the Slk 32 or C32. I do know that the recalled were on the Slk 230, all 320 and 430 engines. You are still luck. I've seen half of the pulley came off on the Slk 230 and destroy everything in it way. Anyway, you should just replace it with ASP pulley.

 

[Guest]

Where do the rubber pieces go?

That piece of rubber is a damper that goes between the base of the crank pulley and the ring of the pulley. Without that rubber to control the vibration, the ring pulley will evetually seperate itself from the base then spin away and everything will be destroy in it way.

On the side notes, this rubber really concerned me when ASP decided welding but he assured me that the heat from welding will be control with water. So far, so good on the design.

 

[16falcon]

Picked up the car today. Turned out the crank pulley wasn't bad, just the harmonic balancer. Unfortunately, when the balancer was coming apart it tore up the V-belt which in turn tore up the top of the upper oil pan. So they resealed the upper oil pan (they offered to replace it but said it wasn't really neccessary and would cost another $350), replaced the balancer and V-belt, oil change and filter. $1545 later it's running well again. I think it would have saved me a bunch of money if I had taken it in when the V-belt started squeeking since it was probably the balancer not the V-belt making the noise. Live and learn. Thanks for your input.