Member Since: 16 Jan 2018
Location: Gibraltar
Posts: 597
Misaligned Pulley Idler
Dear all,
Looking for some thoughts on this.
My LR dealer returned my car yesterday following my troubled trip to Morocco.
They confirmed, as the LR indy in Marrakech did, that the pulley idler bearing was knackered.
As I mentioned in another post, the indy stated that the pulley idler had been misalligned and that there was erosion of the locating pin where it had been ‘knocking’
So, the LR dealer wanted to take a look at the car on my return to make sure it was ok, and to confirm that the ‘reconditioned’ idler and tensioner were in acceptable condition. They also agreed to let me see the stripped components prior to reassembly.
As I had explained the LR indy in Marrakech advised the idler had been misaligned, they took a photo of the mating surface on the cylinder head, which they showed to me.
What it showed was that there was a defect in the mated surface where the locating pin had been.
This is the front of the engine with the mounting point for the pulley idler circled in red.
The photo showed a defect in the upper arc-shaped gully, roughly the size of the locating pin and positioned roughly where I’ve marked in this photo.
My guess to this is that when the timing belt was done 4 years ago, the technician didn’t check the position of the pulley idler properly and simply forced the idler locating pin into the gulley when torquing it up, resulting in the wear on the pin in the picture above.
And this is what I got.
You can see a circular ‘notch’ in the upper gulley.
If I understand the orientation of the idler properly, I think this slight anticlockwise rotation will have resulted in increased tension on the auxiliary belt, putting additional stress on the tensioner and potentially other components in the system.
My other concern is whether driving the locating pin into that gulley has caused damage of any significance to the cylinder head or distorted the mating surface so that it is no longer square.
My question, I guess, is what I should be asking LR to do from here?
Any thoughts/advice, and should I be concerned?
And if the technician :censored: up relocating the pulley idler, should I be asking them to review the timing belt installation as well?2011 D4 XS : LHD
2005 D3 HSE : reluctant sale, but moved abroad. Great car.
26th Aug 2022 8:18 am
DIY Pete
Member Since: 08 May 2022
Location: Wirral
Posts: 34
If I'm not mistaken the locating pin should go in the round hole between the slots, I also had wear on the pulley, the replacement wasn't the best and the locating pin snapped off so I had to put the original one back in whilst I got the sellers to replace the pulley.
Out of curiosity I weighed both of the replacement pulleys, the one that had snapped was 5g lighter.
This can only be explained by porosity as dimensions were identical and casting appeared flawed/rough, the new replacement was almost the same weight as the original I took out(minute difference).
However I have swapped over the bearing from the broken replacement and the original so now have a spare.
Each time I swapped these over they were a pain to locate correctly even when using a marker pen, does anyone know why the body is so large, I'm guessing it's there as a heat sink for the bearing?
Going back to the original thread I'm thinking that as long as the face is flat and the bearing is correctly located it should be alright, seems to me the design could have been better for locating the bearing.
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