Delaminated crank pulley!!

[lnvisiblefred]

Well... today while driving my 98 legacy gt i noticed my power steering was not functioning. Soon after I noticed that the battery light on my dash was illuminated to i stopped and checked out the situation under my hood. I noticed that i no longer had the outer ring on my crank pulley, and the belt going to my power steering pump was gone. i retraced my path and found the ring to my crank pulley in the street along with the missing belt. the repair is going to cost me about 325 bucks...but this isnt the part that concerns me. What can cause something like this to happen? Could it be faulty OEM parts? I have considered buying an aftermarket pulley as they are a bit cheaper, but are there any downsides to doing this? thanks in advance for your responses!

[d1giPhux]

No downsides to getting a light weight crank pulley. Don't go with underdriven pulleys however unless you like screwing around with special sized belts and such. Perrin / Agency Power / Cobb.. etc all make lightweight pulleys thats are the same as the stock size.. just light weight. Great thing is.. they actually help the rev's out a bit.

Your crank pulley may have just become loose, or it could also be because the torque specs for these vehicles crank pulley was wrong in the factory service manual.. and maybe it just came loose over time. It actually happened to me as well. Good thing you didnt maul anything else while you were at it.

325 bux.. for what?!? putting the pulley on and a belt? Thats pretty high man.. you could prolly install it yourself in about.. an hour or so. The first time i ever did it.. took me about an hour.. and then i realize just HOW easy it was.

Good luck!

[lnvisiblefred]

supposedly the pulley is 250 dollars and obviously the rest is labor cost. i would just do it myself but im up all college and i dont have any of my tools from back home or a warm enclosed place to work either haha. i suppose i will order an aftermarket pulley and just have it put in.

Anyone else have some input?

[StatGSR]

^ you could buy all the necessary tools and a crank pulley for like 150 bux. or atleast buy the pulley and take that to get put on.

[d1giPhux]

yeah.. def go with buying the LW pulley and having them put it on. Shouldnt take them more then an hour of labor. You can get perrin LW pulleys on ebay for around $90 bux or so. MUCH better then stock.. you will appreciate it! Too bad you dont have the tools.. because I literally think its like.. 3-4 bolts max to get the pulley back on / off.

[httrdd]

If the belt was tensioned too tight that might cause excess rubbing and cause it to wear down. I would also go with the lightweight pulley and buy the tools needed so next time you have a problem you can do it yourself. I changed a starter on my car a few weeks ago and saved myself about 3-400 bucks.

[Grafton]

order a LW pully ( not under-driven ) and put it on yourself! should only run you about $70 depending on where you get the pulley, for me (when my pulley died) the dealership's cost for the stock pulley and the LW Group A pulley were within $10 of each other so it was a no brainer

[lewisd]

I learned recently the crank pulley is two pieces with hard rubber material holding them together. just age I guess that it came apart. I've seen pictures somewhere of one that came apart. you could get a basic travel tool set that comes in a case like as wholesale club or something with a 10-12mm socket and you'll need 1/2 drive 22mm for the crank bolt (get a little tube blue loctite). Get a loaner breaker bar and torque wrench from Autozone or another auto store. If you have automatic put a stout screwdriver of something long/skinny enough into the access hole behind the throttle body (you'd have to take of the air filter). after hearing about this I plan on replacing my pulley with a regular size solid one. mines a 99 2.2l.

[jey]

Subaru is going nuts with parts prices these days. When I got mine from the dealer it was $80.

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Get the Group A its like $90 it's what i got talk to reason he gets group a stuff

the only think hard about the install is finding a tq wrench to put on the new pulley that clears the fan

[lewisd]

I bought one on sale $20, 30-150 ft/lbs torque wrench from Harbor Freight store but Autozone does have a loaner program. My craftsman torque wrench only went 5-80 ft/lbs. other car parts stores may as well. check their website. just pull the electric fans out of the way. four bolts/screws each fan (two on top, one on side, one on bottom) with one electrical plug disconnect. gives you plenty of room

[lnvisiblefred]

ordered a perrin pulley for 89 dollars shipped! im still going to take it to get put in because its constant blizzard conditions here and no garage :\. big downside to living in an apartment complex. i will give some updates when its installed.

[rougeben83]

get new belts, probably the a/c adjuster and idler pulley too, just to do everything at once. All the parts together shouldn't cost more than $60 shipped online.