Need help.. is this a bad Harmonic Balancer ? I heard squeaking at ideal..opened the hood and notice what you see in the video.
http://www.aksnapshots.com/p66309676...49ae#h344e49ae

what do you think?

 

should not be moving around time to replace

 

dang it.. better to find out now theo.. warranty runs out in a month. Best thing i did was buy that 3 year warranty.

 

I can't tell how much it's moving from that video. You should have zoomed in to the balancer ribs. I'm not hearing anything abnormal. The "chirping" from a bad balancer is not subtle, it's loud.

 

Thats not bad at all. When its bad enough to need replacing you will see that top idler pulley bouncing up and down and lots of belt chirping. If that were mine I wouldnt worry about it.

 

Mine was doing the same thing, It was covered under the powertrain warranty and the tech said it was due to the rubber bushing being deteriorated causing the balancer pieces to seperate, or something like that.

 

I've just been going through this balancer dilemma myself. EVrose is correct. One good way to monitor it is how much your top idler pulling is "Bouncing". I consider mine to be questionable and yours is no where near as bad as mine. I would just keep an eye on it and if it doesn't get any worse I wouldn't touch it. After much research, and a couple trips to dealers and so called "Experts", I'm just gonna watch mine and live with it. Part of my dilemma is that I didn't realize about this balancer problem until after about 3 years of owning the car so I don't know how bad it was from the beginning. Common thoughts seem to be that some of these balancers could be wobbling from the day they rolled a off the showroom floor. If it stays status-Quo I think it will be alright....not much more room for error anymore though. Just some FYI. I went to 2 different GM dealers...one said...."Nah, that ain't that bad....the other said it probably should be replaced but if it doesn't get any worse probably no problem. The bad thing is that both dealers decided that if I do replace it that I would be best to go with another GM balancer. Kinda lost faith in their opinion after hearing that. I mean what the @#$%....replace an obviously faulty factory part with a new obviously faulty factory part ???

 

When I first heard about the balancer issue here on the forum, it was years ago. I checked my car and found the balancer pulley to be absolutely perfect, with no runout at all. Now it is wobbling considerably and so I'm going in to have it replaced next week. I'm glad I checked it back then, because now I know for a fact that it is getting worse. It can even be seen when the engine is not running...the hub surface is flush with the pulley on one side and is sticking out 1/8 inch or so on the other. It's amazing how far out it can be and still make no belt noise at all.

 

Yes, have it replace under the warranty now, since if you wait, it will be over a grand out of your pocket instead.

 

Just had mine replaced on my 05 with 16k miles. It was wobbling, and very noticeable at idle.

 

My 05 with 30k on it is in the shop currently getting a SC installed and I figured I might as well put in an ATI just being preventative even though it was still running true and no squeak but they had to pin the crank so why not. Saved a few bucks from having to break it down to get at it and replace it down the road.

They told me the rubber was clearly migrating out...whatever that means...so it sounds like it was a good idea.

 

Considering that the steering rack has to be pulled to get the balancer out/new one in, its more than a few bucks (not including the cost of having the front end aligned after the fact). With the cost of just a factory balancer, your looking at the $1,200 to $1,500 dollar range in the end to get one replaced via a dealer.

 

Two more videos in better quality

http://www.aksnapshots.com/p66309676...df14#h381edf14
http://www.aksnapshots.com/p66309676...8e7d#h3a2b8e7d

 

Very smart idea to get this done now and to go with the aftermarket balancer.

 

Still doesn't look like it needs replacement to me and I still don't hear any
"squeaking." But if a dealer will replace it at no cost to you, why not do it? I suspect they won't.

Please tell us why you conclude that the "Best thing i did was buy that 3 year warranty."

 

Really.....OUCH! It cost me $450 adding it to the work that was already being done. Yeh me....for once.....

 

Doesn't look bad to me either. I doubt the dealer will change it out as a warranty job. But let me say this...I have an '07 and my ballancer went bad at 69,000 miles. It had a terrible wobble and was chirping loud. I was embarassed to drive it because of the sound. I saw that it was a common issue with Corvettes. This isn't something that happens rarely and I still can't understand why Chevrolet will not make good on an obviously inferior part. Many of us have paid alot of money to replace this poorly designed part and I think Chevy should shoulder some of the responsibility. What do you guys think?

 

 

I have had an alternator replaced, on my 3rd shifter, oil pan replaced. I also had to have something with the AC fixed, with regards to a bad switch in a AC box, took for ever to get fixed.
I agree with what people are saying its frustrating that GM will not fix parts that they now will fail and have failed. I was on vacation in Cal when my last shifter failed ( got stuck would not go in to park its an automatic)

With regards to the HB half of the people say its bad and other say its fine. I dont know what it looked like when i bought the car, so i dont have a reference point. I heard a noise so i looked under the hood the HB stood out as something that didnt look right.

 

I say get it replaced before the warranty expires! It's not if but when it will fail.