mjojom

Hi Guys, hope someone can help.
Set off in hot day out for seaside. Everything was fine with A/C on the whole way. Parked the car to get some grub, started the car no power steering. Soon I got message about no charging and smelled rubber burning. Stopped the car checked under the bonnet and crankshaft pulley was not moving and burning some rubber. Ive noticed some rubber pieces inside of the pulley. After some troubleshooting noticed that crankshaft pulley stop moving when A/C switched on. It will start the a/c but 2-3 seconds later a/c stops and that will stop whole crankshaft pulley and that will stop power steering and alternator. So the rest of the day was without a/c . Now a/c pump could not be completely blocked cos it will start spinning but stops. Just got home ac belt kinda burned and come off, (ac was not on any more). Problem continues at if feels now, whatever burned in crankshaft pulley making crankshaft pulley not engage strong enough and on low RPM (parking) I can feel that power steering does not work as it should so crankshaft pulley must be slightly slipping, right? - also, there is slight smell of rubber burning. Worth to mention that I had a/c has been refiled on tuesday and I did not use car since, only made 5 min trip home from kwik-fit. Could wrong refilling/pressurizing cause a/c pump to build more pressure and being hard to turn or anything in that lines?
the picture below is generic, but pretty much same what i got, red spray is where the burned rubber is. What could cause it, what i do have to replace to fix crankshaft pulley and could that be fubared a/c pump? also, can someone explain as I was thinking that pulley is hard connection with crankshaft and sprocket, obviously if it stops spinning it is not.



thanks for comments and help

Only Bimmers

First the crankshaft pulley will never stop spinning unless the engine is seized or off. Remove your belt and spin all of the other pulleys and see if anything is seized. If in doubt, change the tensioner assembly which includes the pulley.

About your AC. This had a clutched pulley. Meaning when electrically engaged it will spin, other times it is off. This pulley or clutch only engages as needed by the HVAC system. This si why you see it going on and off. You should not randomly fill your sytem without doing some homework as overcharging can damage it. Those off the shelf cans are fine but not overly accurate.

mjojom

a little update,
just found out that crankshaft pulley is actually made of two plates and in between them is rubber to damper the vibrations from engine. apparently its nothing uncommon that rubber wears out and plates slip.
also, my a/c was done in kwik-fit which is chain of garages.
cheers

Only Bimmers

What car do you have, i just pulled my crank pulley off 3 days ago and saw nothing like this. Can you take a picture. This would be good info for all to know.

DavidF

Yes, you need to replace the crankshaft pulley also known as harmonic dampener or vibration dampener. The pulley is indeed isolated from the hub via rubber. If the rubber lets go, the pulley and hub can move independent of each other. But, something caused this. I would suspect a problem with the ac compressor (probably the garage over filled with refrigerant) first of all. "Only Bimmers" statement that the "crankshaft pulley will never stop spinning unless the engine is seized or off" is not accurate.

mjojom

ok, crank pulley replaced, old ones rubber was cracked and the two parts were disintegrated completely, dont know how the power steering and charging was still working . apparently, on diesels its nothing uncommon for them to go.
anyway, bought this one: BMW 525D 530D 535D E60 61CRANKSHAFT PULLEY 11237793593 | eBay as corteco (manufacturer for BMW) was out of stock at the time whole job was done in under an hour.

however I got question. old one was completely smooth on surface, fibi one was not as flat at the places. Now when car is idling I can feel it does vibrate slightly more. question is: wouldnt that "help" crank bearing to get fooked?
thanks

oh, and car is 530 d e61

DavidF

If dampener is not perfectly smooth during rotation, but seems to move in elliptical fashion, then I would remove and replace (defective part) with good part.