So the other day I was driving my car to work when I heard a metal fluttering sound from the engine. I couldn't figure it's pattern out to narrow down what it was. I know when I braked it was happening and when I accelerated a good amount. But at some times it was just happening non stop. So I had a Firestone that I trust (or trusted now) near where I work and I dropped the car off there before work because the sound got worse the whole trip into work.

Firestone calls me up later on saying they think my whole crankshaft moved forward an inch. I'm thinking if that happened I'd be looking for a new engine because I wasn't sure how that could happen and still have driven it to work. I called up the guys at L.A.P.D.. I would have brought it to them in the first place but I work the opposite way from where I live and where LAPD is located. Keith at LAPD had an idea on what it was and was pretty much right on with it. So I had to have it towed there because it wasn't safe to drive it that distance.

So what they found was that the harmonic balancer pulley had actually broken and the middle separated from the outer part and pulled away by a 1/4 of an inch. That was just enough for it to hit the front cover and throw off the belts and whatever else. They said they have never seen that particular problem with the harmonic balancer but have known them to go bad in other ways before. Luckily they had a good used one in the shop and had me on my way in no time.

Here are some photos just for CF's knowledge in case this happens to anyone else.

This is what a stock one should look like:



Here is what mine looked like. You can see the middle portion separated and pulled out of the outer part. It should be flush like you see in the first picture.


Here's an inside view of my pulley:



I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but does anyone know if this is common or how/why this would happen? I drive a bit hard or as I like to call it free spirited but I have never seen this happen before. I read a little bit about harmonic balancer problems but didn't see too much info.

-Shawn

 

Likely just age and heat deteriorating the rubber.

 

How many miles on your car?

 

Anyone, ANYONE that calls you up and tells you they think you're whole crankshaft has moved forward an inch needs to be severely bitch-slapped BEFORE being fired.

And people wonder why "repair shops" get such bad reputations.

Good to hear L.A.P.D. is taking care of your situation.

 

That has to be the most idiotic thing I have heard in a long time . I would have started laughing uncontrollably in their faces right before I told them to f*$k off!

 

My car only has 56k miles which for a 1999 isn't bad. It was a weekend driver up until the point I bought it last fall which it's been my daily driver since.

Yeah, I don't know much of the heavy technical stuff but I do know if a crankshaft moved that it would be a bigger problem then what I was experiencing. I trusted them in the past for brakes and tires and stuff, but I got the vette and know they don't really do much with them. I figured though this seemed like something anyone who calls them self a "mechanic" can probably figure out, I guess not.

Thanks L.A.P.D.!!! I got a couple more things they are doing in a week or so. This was my second time dealing with them and they went out of their way to come to the shop after hours for me to pick up my car and go over some stuff. Really a top notch place.

 

You gotta understand that this "Repair shop" probably works on alot more then just GM or LS motors, and there are motors out there that suffer severly from "crank walk", so yes it does happen (DSM Anybody )

 

Mine did that back in 2004 when the car had 108K miles on it. In your case it was likely age vs. milage.

Glad you got fixed. Mine slid back and took out the front engine cover, seal and oil pan. I went ahead and replaced the oil and timing chain and did a cam and spring install. Lot of work but saved lots of money and enjoyed doing it myself.

 

 

Dude! He said an inch!! I have to believe you're joking. Ain't nobody gotta understand that! You show me an engine with a crank that walks an inch. I hope you don't have a bridge to sell too cuz I ain't buyin it!

 

exactly

 

I had my damper fail in a different way just a couple of weeks ago. The area on the hub where the front seal rides just wore away and damaged the front seal. It went from a clean oil free bottom of the engine and car to a oil soaked nasty pit in a couple of days!

I will take a couple of pictures of the seal and hub tonight.

A new Power bond damper took care of that issue!

BC

 

Wow, I'm glad more didn't happen to my engine with all possible damage it sounds like could happen in front of the engine.

Yeah, they told me it looked like it moved an inch. I think they were looking at the belt which must have been way off too. It was funny cause they called me to tell me what they found and were at least honest in saying they didn't know much about this situation and if I had a shop I worked with this car in the past that they might be more equipped to figure out the problem. I quickly agreed of course and that's when I called LAPD and told the first place to not do any more work on it. I had AAA come with flatbed and take my baby away from those crazies.

I guess there's an after market harmonic balancer but that would have cost me $400+ in just the part and they already had a used one they gave me for $50 so I just took the used one for now.

 

I went through the same thing, good thing nothing got damaged!

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1872301

 

How do you like the balancer you got now that you've had it for a few months? I'm looking into what things I can replace with stronger parts and will probably include a different balancer pulley when the time comes.

 

Zero problems with the balancer.

Only regret is not putting a cam in it while I was in there!

 

If the crank "walks" forward an inch there will be no sound and you won't be driving it into a shop to get it checked. Much like if your rear wheels start to extend out the sides of the car!

The harmonic balancer is a fairly common problem on C5s. Because of a previous post I read here on this issue a year ago, I had the local dealership check mine last May. Sure enough it was wobbling at 30,000 easy-driven miles. Even though I had no symptoms, when the Service Manager saw what was going on (just looking under the hood) - he said to leave the car and they would replace it under warranty. Unfortunately that meant another "stock" harmonic balancer... so I figure my days are numbered. No other balancer problems so far, but sadly when they dropped the steering rack to change it out, they somehow screwed that up. They are now replacing the steering rack for the 3rd time next week.

I have had quite a few Corvettes in the past that I put over 100,000 miles on and I never had a Harmonic Balancer problem in my life - so these are just defective IMO.

 

my 99 did the same thing at 85K

 

Amen bother.

 

I have a 2000 and mine started wobbling after 52,000 miles. The reason I noticed the problem was the squealing belt and after changing it twice in two months I was forced to change the balancer. At 70,000 it started wobbling again but no belt squeal. I am watching this one since most all ls1 engines have this problem. It has not gotten any worse. It cost $700.00 to replace at the dealer including labor. It appears to be a poor design.