Kansas City MINI Enthusiasts

Well my car has been down for a bit on account of the Way Motor Works +2% crank pulley I had installed back in Aug '06. I got a good 30+k out of it till Oct. 29th while in the KC area. I had passed it off as a bad pulley bearing but on my way home I was overly curious as to what is actually going on so I pulled off at the Maple Hill gas station on I-70 popped the hood looked down and saw in shock the crank pulley wobbling at idle . I continue my journey home 250 more miles to go and a sweaty forehead on account of the current state of the car. So talking to Brian White about it and he said to look at the tensioner. I did just that and sure enough its failed. Ordered a new tensioner and a new OEM crank pulley . While swapping belt tensioners when I released the belt I heard a rattle and I was just laughing as I was awestruck to THIS


then after finishing it off with a hammer


I also found out from Brian that having a lightweight crank pulley and no matter the size is a contributor to early oil pump failure which results in a oil starved blown motor. So moral of all this stick with the OEM crank pulley if you have a 02-04 swap to the 05-06 crank pulley as its lighter.

Yep, there's usually a good reason why the factory does the things they do. Good thing it made it home for you!

Now you need to start asking yourself why your tensioner failed......

BTW, is Brian White with Way Motor Works?

Minidave wrote:Yep, there's usually a good reason why the factory does the things they do. Good thing it made it home for you!

Now you need to start asking yourself why your tensioner failed......

BTW, is Brian White with Way Motor Works?

I think having 61k miles on the car and having the oversized crank pulley took the tensioner beyond its engineered specs. Since I am going back to OEM I am going to swap to a 17%.

Brian White is a great friend and MINI tech for South Bay Mini in Cali and also a part of ABF Performance which is (MegaMINI & RMW) he also has the 500whp t-only Black Car formerly known as The Widow.

Punk_Mini wrote:

Minidave wrote:Yep, there's usually a good reason why the factory does the things they do. Good thing it made it home for you!

Now you need to start asking yourself why your tensioner failed......

I think having 61k miles on the car and having the oversized crank pulley took the tensioner beyond its engineered specs. Since I am going back to OEM I am going to swap to a 17%.

I think you're right about the pulley screwing up the tensioner, tho I know other's have had to replace them too - I wonder how many of those were running under/oversized pulleys too?

Can't believe you have 61K on your MINI already! That's a pile of driving!

Minidave wrote:

Punk_Mini wrote:

Minidave wrote:Yep, there's usually a good reason why the factory does the things they do. Good thing it made it home for you!

Now you need to start asking yourself why your tensioner failed......

I think having 61k miles on the car and having the oversized crank pulley took the tensioner beyond its engineered specs. Since I am going back to OEM I am going to swap to a 17%.

I think you're right about the pulley screwing up the tensioner, tho I know other's have had to replace them too - I wonder how many of those were running under/oversized pulleys too?

Can't believe you have 61K on your MINI already! That's a pile of driving!

I can't believe it either I turned over 50k near the OK KS border on April 2nd at 11pm. What got me the milage was I drove to phoenix before I went to AMVIV hung out with a few guys there met up with 2 crazy MINI's A 315whp turbo-only MINI which is incomprehensible when you feel the KICK of turbo style boost


An S -wannabe Justacooper that could handle like nothing I have rode in before but still totally slammed on PSS9's

I also saw Jan of RMW's 2.0 Stroker GP

Nice M8 M8!

Here is a few updated pictures of my MINI.







Top Gear look by Tuls