Pully Seize

[coutso]

Driving home from Echuca last night and my car lost all power steering, battery charging and brake light came on. Once I slowed down it lost all ABS and traction control as well. After pulling over and opening my bonnet I found that my belt was detatched and the upper pully had totally seized. The bearing was totally shot. At first looked to be just a new pully would fix the problem but on further inspection found that it had worn the mount the pully sits on. Just wanted to know the problems of this? Looks as if when the pully siezed it had dragged and worn down one site of the mount which would cause any new pully to not sit right.

Pretty pissed off... a tow truck and 320 dollars later!

[MH3.0R]

Mate, we have the same vehicle and I have not heard of that issue previously. How long have you had the vehicle and do you know the full service history?

[coutso]

I have had the car for about a month.. Brought from a dealer with a warranty so Im trying to get in contact with them now, see if they will cover. Full service history through Subaru, never missed a service either. Due for its 200,000 in a few weeks.
What has happened is the upper pully which charges the battery and so on has seized because the bearing killed itself. This then forced it to rub against the bracket and has worn down one side. I now need a new pully, two new bearings (going to replace the bearing in the other pully to be safe) and a idler bearing bracket. The only warning you get is a slight winding noise, but i was travelling 110 coming home from Echuca with my mates and obviously didnt hear it.

Its just something to be careful of and keep it in mind.. I'm just lucky it didnt come off and go through my radiator!

[MH3.0R]

Cutso, I just had my 200K kms service and I cannot see any check of the pully bearings. They check and replace timing belts so I assume that the pully check would be part of that inspection. To be sure I will ask anyway. Thanks for the tip.

[smythie]

I had an alternator bearing go in mine nearly 12 months ago. I could hear the bugger getting worse. Got the alternator reconditioned with new bearings and bearing howl gone.

As far as bearings go, short of lubricating them regularly (those pulleys are sealed so you can't lubricate them anyway) there is nothing you can do. Replacing them at a fixed age is no guarantee that you'll prevent a failure, in fact it can be the cause of an early failure of the new bearing or another problem in the engine bay as a result of the work done. Bearings do not have a "life" (i.e. an age at which a large percentage of the population will generally fail at) - the point in the life at which they can fail is random. The beauty of roller element bearings in particular is that you can hear the buggers getting worse when they decide they are going to start to fail.

In your case coutso, I reckon that bearing was already on its way out when you bought it so you didn't have a chance to hear the difference between the engine running as it should and running with a howling bearing.

[coutso]

Yeah I'm pretty pissed off. Picked up the park today, $140 later which isn't so bad. Just pissed off about the tow of $320 (from Wallan [50km out of Melb] to Lysterfield South)!
But this problem is something to keep in mind... Just keep an ear out as Smythie says, try get a gauge on how your engine sounds (thats under the assumption that it isnt already happening haha).

Oh well, It will be fixed for my drive to Mildura. Fingers crossed nothing happens on the way there, otherwise im screwed

[zopinator]

Yeah I'm pretty pissed off. Picked up the park today, $140 later which isn't so bad. Just pissed off about the tow of $320 (from Wallan [50km out of Melb] to Lysterfield South)!
But this problem is something to keep in mind... Just keep an ear out as Smythie says, try get a gauge on how your engine sounds (thats under the assumption that it isnt already happening haha).

Oh well, It will be fixed for my drive to Mildura. Fingers crossed nothing happens on the way there, otherwise im screwed

i live in Wallan! could've got it for ya!

[Robbks]

They check and replace timing belts so I assume that the pully check would be part of that inspection

No they don't....
3.0 has a timing chain

[Hobber]

I believe all dealer second hand cars come with a compulsory warranty (3mo) - I would think that should cover this issue.

You'll probably not hear a dealer volunteer that info though

If in Vic the info can be found at

http://www.vacc.com.au/ConsumerInfo/Buy ... fault.aspx

edit: yes 3mo or 5000km.