Aarrrgh, alternator pulley collapsed!

[DanS]

I only got my car last september and as it was on the five year mark but only had 43000 on the clock so I treated it and got a full service, and cambelt and cambelt kit, and also aux belt and aux belt kit, cost me about £700!

I moved flat over the weekend and on the last trip from the old flat the car started to make a really weird noise then just totally cut out whilst driving. Luckily I was near the new flat so managed to push it home.

Couldn't get it started at all, got breakdown out the next morning who couldn't either, who then towed it it the garage that did the cambelt and service last year, who had a look at it, and told me that the alternator pulley had collapsed, snapped off, snapping the aternator belt, which has gone into the cambelt, and probably bent a load of valves! could cost up to £1000 to sort out!

I'm not a mechanic but is the pulley not part of what should have been replaced last year? if not, is this a failure of parts or parts not up the job as I would of had this replaced lthis ast year when I had the cambelt done if it was recommended by renault??

I rang renault customer services to complain who said they couldn't comment as the car would need to be diagnosed at a renault garage for £100, plus the cost of towing it to the garage, and the possibility of renault then doing nothing at all other than asking a small fortune to fix.

I'm well f***ed off, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[H182]

Yes the pullies come as part of the kit for the aux belt. The garage should have changed this at the same time as the belts I'd have thought. May be worth asking from help from them if they didn't do it?

 

[DanS]

well they said they'd done the pulleys when I had the work done last year, and I paid for the cambelt & kit and aux belt and kit as per the receipt, which I thought was all that was needed. it is the same garage that did the work last year that it is at now.

is the alternator pulley part of the aux belt kit?

 

[H182]

Oh sorry I read that wrong. No the altenator pully isn't part of the kit. Guess there isn't alot you can do apart from contact renault UK and see what they say.

 

[davebem]

Depends what they mean, sometimes the pulley is reffered to as the tensioner sometimes its the little idler. How much on the receipt was the aux belt kit?? The idler is prone to failing as its really low down behind the arch lining as is a bit exposed to the elements. The garage should have changed the idler, tensioner and aux belt. Renault sell the kit and sell them all seperatly aswell. Im not sure if the kit includes the idler..

 

[DanS]

aux belt kit on receipt was 40.66, not sure if this is inclusive of vat!

 

[H182]

^Sounds about right not inclusive of vat (well before renault put the price up)!

 

[bmh.01]

Think this is just one of those things tbh, how long did it take from the noise starting to it snapping? Can't really see how this has anything to do with renault as its 3 years outside of warrenty and these things do happen.

 

[DanS]

I hardly noticed any noise tbh!
I noticed a slight whining but i was in between moving house and the car was full of stuff so I didn't think anything of it, it was probably a couple of days from when I first heard any kind of noise but it was only very feint that I never even thought to get it looked at and i'd had the cambelt etc done so never even knew this could happen!

 

[DanS]

just realised you mean the weird noise I heard when it cut out, it was a few seconds then cut out, was a kinf of flapping noise which was probably one of the belts coming loose I guess!