So I was driving yesterday and was pulling into school and I heard a loud clunk and could smell burning rubber. I didn't lose power sterring right away but I knew it was the belt. Turns out the belt slipped off and shredded itself in the tensioner pulley and behind the crank shaft pulley. The belt only had 10000 miles on it. All said and done, the tensioner pulley failed causing the belt to slip which destroyed the crankshaft seal and cost 850 to fix including the tow to the body shop. I just put coils and plugs in it on Sunday and now this. FML (F**K My Lincoln).
Shredded Serpentine belt
- Thread starter Jrt1418
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joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
How many miles and how many years on the failed tensioner?
The LS has a lot of things that should have been better, and a few things like the COPs and the DCCV that fail more frequently than other cars, but the tensioner is not one of those. It seems like there are more and more posts here complaining about things that happen with any and every car if you keep it long enough and put off routine maintenance for too long.
I can understand that you are upset about this unexpected bill, but I don't understand why the anger is directed at Lincoln or the LS.
The LS has a lot of things that should have been better, and a few things like the COPs and the DCCV that fail more frequently than other cars, but the tensioner is not one of those. It seems like there are more and more posts here complaining about things that happen with any and every car if you keep it long enough and put off routine maintenance for too long.
I can understand that you are upset about this unexpected bill, but I don't understand why the anger is directed at Lincoln or the LS.
My car has 59,XXX miles. This is why it is so frusterating. If it had a lot of miles I would expect things to wear out. The tensioner was making a ticking sound when the it was cold outside (I believe there is a TSB out on this) so I probably should of replaced it before it completely failed. It would only tick a couple times and then was fine. It is frusterating that parts are failing all at once. Bad luck I guess.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
Remember, there's more to it than just miles. Years (age) come into play as well. There's a big difference between a three year old car with 60K miles and a ten year old car with 60K miles. Grease dries out over time, for example.
cirelle
Active LVC Member
I'm puzzled, how would the belt tensioner cause the crankshaft seal to fail?
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
Tensioner fails.
Belt slips off one or more pulleys and gets stuck.
Stuck belt is ripped in half.
Free end of belt whips around and pulls in between the crankshaft pulley and the engine.
The belt stuck between the crankshaft pulley and engine rotates with the pulley and pulls or rubs the crankshaft seal apart.
That is exactly what happened. The belt got tangled between the crank pulley and the engine. Destroyed the seal.
Bumping an old thread.....
This happened to me today. Started hearing a tapping sound 3 days ago in the lower front right area of the engine. My initial concern was that it was internal. Well, today the sound got a bit louder and 4 miles later, I lost the power steering and then the temp gauge immediately went to hot. Parked it immediately and saw the remains of the serpentine belt hanging out of the bottom(guess what I was hearing was the belt shredding and tapping as it spun). Literally grabbed it from under the car with my hand and it all came out to me. Luckily, it did not wrap itself and cause any damage to the crankshaft seal. The belt was under warranty from NAPA since it was a new item when the swap was done. Had it towed 1/2 a mile to a friend's foreign car repair shop and he was cool enough to change it out in a matter of 40 minutes(counting topping off the coolant bleeding the system) HUGE thanks to BigRig for emailing the pdf on on a minute's notice on how to route the belt.
In short, back on the road and not out of any money. Bullet dodged.
This happened to me today. Started hearing a tapping sound 3 days ago in the lower front right area of the engine. My initial concern was that it was internal. Well, today the sound got a bit louder and 4 miles later, I lost the power steering and then the temp gauge immediately went to hot. Parked it immediately and saw the remains of the serpentine belt hanging out of the bottom(guess what I was hearing was the belt shredding and tapping as it spun). Literally grabbed it from under the car with my hand and it all came out to me. Luckily, it did not wrap itself and cause any damage to the crankshaft seal. The belt was under warranty from NAPA since it was a new item when the swap was done. Had it towed 1/2 a mile to a friend's foreign car repair shop and he was cool enough to change it out in a matter of 40 minutes(counting topping off the coolant bleeding the system) HUGE thanks to BigRig for emailing the pdf on on a minute's notice on how to route the belt.
In short, back on the road and not out of any money. Bullet dodged.
RigsLS
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Glad I could help Bud!
Just read the above: "The tensioner was making a ticking sound when the it was cold outside"
:: Although my ticking went away when I switched to Mobile 1 FS, I do believe the weather was warmer over the long weekend when I had my cooling system apart and finished off with getting the RP out and M1 FS in.
So, the ticking gone may only have been from the warming up of the weather, I best check my belt and tensioner pulley tomorrow.
Just read the above: "The tensioner was making a ticking sound when the it was cold outside"
:: Although my ticking went away when I switched to Mobile 1 FS, I do believe the weather was warmer over the long weekend when I had my cooling system apart and finished off with getting the RP out and M1 FS in.
So, the ticking gone may only have been from the warming up of the weather, I best check my belt and tensioner pulley tomorrow.
Replace the tensioner and pulleys or it may happen again.
Thanks joegr
thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have learned wayyy much from this site, and mainly from you. I maintain this 2006 LS for my Pops. He loves it, and it's a
beautiful burgundy. I did all the cooling system parts, degass bottle, coils, plugs.
ect.ect
tomorrow will be idler pulley day, gotta have em
thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have learned wayyy much from this site, and mainly from you. I maintain this 2006 LS for my Pops. He loves it, and it's a
beautiful burgundy. I did all the cooling system parts, degass bottle, coils, plugs.
ect.ect
tomorrow will be idler pulley day, gotta have em
04_Sport_LS
Dedicated LVC Member
Hmm... not gonna say it.
I wonder how that guy in another thread worked out with pics of his belt halfway off the idler pulley. Tensioners DO fail. So do idler pulleys. Bearings and torsional springs do fail after enough time and milage, (or wear and tear)!!! 35 years of turning wrenches must mean some amount of experience???
I wonder how that guy in another thread worked out with pics of his belt halfway off the idler pulley. Tensioners DO fail. So do idler pulleys. Bearings and torsional springs do fail after enough time and milage, (or wear and tear)!!! 35 years of turning wrenches must mean some amount of experience???
nghtshd88
Well-Known LVC Member
Havent gotten a chance to change it yet. I am tomorrow and got it down to the tensioner pulley. Although someone mentiones there is a TSB for the idler pulley on 04. Might change that to anyway...
04_Sport_LS
Dedicated LVC Member
^^^ Glad you figured it out 