Another harmonic balancer failure

[Dan B]

Off to work and I hear belt squeal, it gets louder and suddenly two loud thuds & then silence. I knew my belt was intact because I could still hear my PS pump whining away. I turn on my headlights and the belt squeal returned so I think it's my alternator that is malfunctioning. Turn off the lights and continue to work. On the way home I pick up a new alternator/belt. I go to install it and find what is pictured below. I had no idea how common this was until I researched it. I'm just happy it didn't take anything else out with it. I'm now waiting for a new balancer, I did replace the alternator because the old one wasn't generating enough voltage, my guess is it was dying and took the balancer out with it.

 

[EddieS'04]

Wow! You got real lucky to not have real damage. Years ago a friend had one come loose on a dodge van. He was on the hwy and it threw it thru the fan a radiator.

 

[Todd Z]

UGH, yeah lucky..... also easy fix too.... glad your ok.

 

[Dan B]

Fixed it on Saturday and back on the road. Took about an 1 / 1.5 hours. The biggest PITA was finding bolts long enough to go into the balancer to pull it. Admittedly, I drove about 60 miles with the belt riding on the rubber bits left over on the balancer so I do consider myself lucky, especially since usually the worst scenario happens to me. New balancer, new belt and my battery seems much happier with the new alternator. Now, I'm waiting for the next problem to come up-I just put another water pump in, EGR valve and valve cover gaskets so I hope it's quite a while.

 

[EddieS'04]

Good deal, Fingers crossed for you.....