well, the cobra is out of action again lol. I just got her back from the body shop last night and it looks perfect. Got a whole new bumper that has no holes where a license plate would be, woot. All was good... Then today my car decided to let the serpentine belt exit the engine bay while driving home from some Frolf. For 2 weeks I've had this weird noise coming from the engine bay. I thought the whole time i had a bearing on an idler pulley going out. Many mustangs have had pulley failures and most recommend an upgrade to newer pullies on all accessories right away as insurance... Well, I ignored all the warnings and even my car's own racket. Tonight while driving home, the rattling noise got louder and louder and at one point got louder as the seconds passed. I knew something was effed up. I pulled it out of gear and coasted over to a turn lane to get into a gas station, once the revs fell when I pulled it out of gear I heard metal clanking and I knew I left some of my car behind... Sure enough i see crap flying under my car in the rearview and heard metal bouncing from under my car. Upon inspection once I pulled over, my serp belt was halfway off all the pulleys and had no tension. It was shot. One of my idler pulley's is missing about 1/4 of its face. It just shattered, taking the serp with it. My diagnoses is a shot bearing that has been making the noise for the past week, then tonight it gave up the ghost and blew. After waiting 2 hours for my roadside assistance to send a truck (i was in the parking lot in the Andover ghetto. We got to see a drug bust right in the lot with 3 cop cars, so at least we were entertained while we waited :eek4: ) I decided to fully pull the belt out of the way and drive home on just battery power while CLOSELY watching the temp gauge. Luckily I was only 3 miles from home and got her home safe. I was that close to ordering the new pullies 2 weeks ago, I guess I'll get them tomorrow and have DB throw them in with the new clutch this upcoming weekend. /rant
that's crazy, instead of new tires, you should of the pullies. ANDOVER has a GHETTO!!?? lolz that's funny! good thing you didn't get ROBBED for your tires hahaha
well, its a relative ghetto compared to the rest of the city. Its one block with about 10 houses. Sounds pretty tame, but in the past few years there's been multiple stabbings, shootings, and even a cop was shot. there's no way we could've gotten robbed, there were 3 squad cars in the gas station at the pumps drug busting. so i felt safe with them there lol.
I drove my winter car while it was in the shop. I kind of wished I did take a rental to beat on, but it would have just added to the headache of having a car in the shop.
definately not a trend contained to only the ford company. My jeep started making an outrageous amount of noise from the front end (with no warning). I thought a rod bearing had gone, but when I limped 'er home and started messing with stuff the next day, I found my idler pulley was down to 4 of the 10 original bearings. One probably cracked and made its way out giving the others room to escape. I'm just greatful my pulley didnt let go like yours did, at least I got to re-use my serp. belt. Make sure that your tensioner is set correctly or it will KEEP eating those pulleys. The Previous owner of my jeep replaced the serp himself and must have tightened it too much.
I should also add, at my work, I have replaced idler pulleys on our chevy 3500 work truck (twice), my bosses escalade, my old k1500, and soon to be replacing one on the boss's daughter's Montero. Its like they are engineered to crap out.
Luckily they're quite easy to swap out, about a 5 minute job. I'm glad everyone replaces the stock ones on the Cobra with aluminum ones, I have a few guys over at SVTOATC.com who are willing to let me borrow their OEM idlers while I wait for my aftermarket ones to ship.
the car will be getting a few things installed, so I won't be driving it at all. I just need to limp it up to DB.
