Arghh something broken aux drive belt C5 HDi

[Sid_the_Squid]

Arghh its just typical, starting a new job tomorrow, and my C5 decides its a good time to break!

So I'm driving along, when suddenly the steering becomes very heavy, then the battery not charging lite appears.. So I turn my rather loud music off, whereupon I hear this god awful grinding screeching sound, previously masked by the music.

Upon investigation it seems the aux belt is going round rather slowly, there is a fair bit of smoke and burning smell, plus tiny flakes of metal being thrown out of the general area, oh yes and the noise..

My best guess is one of the bearing for the rollers has broken up causing the roller to seize, or at least move very slowly and painfully.

So questions.

1) Safe to drive? I assume not, but not driving would leave me car less, which right now would present a terrible problem.
2) does my diagnosis sound plausible, anything else it could be?
3) Possible to bodge or quick fix, I suppose it would be possible to drive short distances without the aux belt at all, but more an emergency get home fix than a short term solution.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thx

[Pleiades]

Sorry to say that you have a bit of a dilema.

You cannot realy drive as is, because if the belt slipped inside the crankshaft pulley, then this could cause the cambelt to jump a few teeth, as others have found out, this is disasterous.

You should not realy drive with no belt, it does state on the crankshaft pulley, not to run the engine without the aux belt on, ignoring this rule means that you may get away with it, but you could damage the pulley.

Unless you can find a belt to go round and bypass the problem pulley, (most likely the aircon compressor) you are shafted.

I know that this is not the news that you need!!!!
Regards.
Martin.

[DickieG]

Could it be the crank pulley separate parts slipping (provided its a two part pulley of course).

[dave2011]

had this happen on my synergie. if the belt does slip behind the cam belt cover it will make it skip the teeth causeing the timing to be wrong then it will knack the valve,s/valve guides/possibly piston tops ect ect.......then its a head off job to repair.mine decided to go when i was aprox 20mins from home but i was lucky as the tensioner pully siezed snapping the belt so i had no power steering and no alternator.its not advisable to drive the car with no alternaor as the whole point of the alternator is to pump the juice back into the battery that that car uses n if the belt is missing it cant so if your driving a great distance the battery will go flat n the car will come to a halt as the ecu and other electrical parts of the engine will have no power.

[Paul-R]

Could it be the crank pulley separate parts slipping (provided its a two part pulley of course).

That happened to me last summer in the Xsara.

We were touring round Spain and a slight ticking noise manifested itself whilst climbing the Pyrhenees to Andorra. It got progressively worse until we got to Beziers when it developped into a horrible screech. I turned the A/C off and it went back to "just" rattling. The last 50 odd miles from Nimes to Orange were a bit nerve shredding but we made it and I was able to change the pulley there.

[Sid_the_Squid]

Further update it's def the crank pulley, drove it to a garage last night, first time driving since I made the origional post, it did make it there, I drove at 1500rpm the whole way, checking under the bonnet the aux belt was hanging loose, the crank pulley had totally come apart!

[Sid_the_Squid]

Garage just phoned, apparently it's caused the timing belt to jump, as the engine is running rough as, they reckon no damage, but new timing belt required etc.
Grrrr I've had enough of this C5, been nothing but trouble, reckon I'm going to get rid of it now.

[Xantidote]

Commiserations, and hope it's not too costly.

I'm curious as to how many miles the crank pulley has done, in case one day I have a 110 C5

[Sid_the_Squid]

So far I've been quoted £300 approx for new cranky pullye, belt, and new timing belt, sadly I could not get to my usual guys at B&L they are really busy, so I hope this new place does a good job.

Real pain is the timing belt et all was chainged about 20k ago so not needed

AFAIK this is the origional crank pulley so its managed 140k miles.

I'm thinking of trading in for a nice 306 Diesel.

[old'uns]

Commiserations, and hope it's not too costly.

I'm curious as to how many miles the crank pulley has done, in case one day I have a 110 C5

luck of the draw i think...

my original lasted 100k, 2nd one went at 140k, next one lasted 10k - we did a deal with garage- 4th one changed at 185k, this one started making noises a few weeks ago but has gone quiet so have had this before...cue no.6 methinks!

as far as i know 2 of these were the cheaper ones, later ones middle priced & none from Citroen, so again, can't pinpoint which ones will cause problems?

[davygr22]

Aah!! - the usual crank pulley problem.I had my 406 Coupe 2.2 Hdi in for a cambelt change recently & had agreed with the Peugeot garage that the tensioners & water pump should be done as the car was on 92k miles.
Got a phone call later that day to advise there was excess free play in the crank pulley & they advised renewal - I was aware of this from previous PSA Group diesel units - total cost of job for full belt/tensioner kit,water pump,crank pulley & new coolant £585.00 inc Vat!!
I just wonder when all these dual part crank pulleys/dual mass flywheels etc started to appear on passenger car diesel power units?
Has anyone experienced any of the replacement solid flywheel clutch kits marketed for many diesel models & does a replacement solid crank pulley exist for these engines?

[Sid_the_Squid]

Well she's all fixed up now, and running nicer than ever!
The damaged was quite bad, looks like I was lucky the belt only jumpted a tooth or two, was very close to destroying the whole thing!

Heres a picture of the damaged parts.