APR pulley belt shredded

B8 S4
#1

Should have posted here for actual help rather than insults over at AZ, but anyhow…my pulley belt shredded yesterday in the highway and want to know what might have caused it to do this, and what preventive measures I should take in the near future. It was only installed for a month and driven only in the weekends.


http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad71/loco075/IMG_20150830_172732_zps5c3e2112.jpg


http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad71/loco075/IMG_20150830_171504_zpsa32e339b.jpg


http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad71/loco075/IMG_20150830_171439_zps6d7a3854.jpg

It’s currently at the shop and they are taking care of all costs internally. They will let me know more tomorrow morning.

#2

I too wonder what Infinkc asked…did the pulley back out a little? Or not pushed in enough when installed?

Also, dumb question, but is that belt installed inside out?

#3

Wow man I don’t think I’ve seen this happen before. You came to the right place, though. You won’t get any insults here. Welcome to the forum, and I hope this gets resolved.

#4

The crank pulley is known to fail. check that. There might be a chance that is part of the issue. Does anyone have a picture of the stock pulley and its location. It looks like the top pulley might have backed out. Is there still a nut on the end of the top pulley shaft.

#5

When I checked it after the install there was no play and it was secure. I checked it from time to time to make sure there were no cracks or anything, as well as poking it to make sure the elasticity was firm. As for the install, these guys are reputable and have done lots of installs, and they are shocked as this is the first time they have seen this (and my first tuned car too, wife is disappointed now after getting it for my bday…now she doesn’t want another audi :()

The picture is blurry but the grooves are on the bottom rather than inside out.

I make sure that the car is warmed up to 170+ degrees before I punch it and love to do spirited drives, other than that I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary, as I did the same when I was stock.

There are more shredded pieces which I couldn’t reach and the hood lining got damaged also, like a mini explosion.

#6

Nm missed your reply.

#7

Yes, that was my first thought and I was expecting the worst when I popped the hood, but from the limited view and knowledge, it didn’t seem to be as I am still able to drive it albeit at snail speeds. Mine is a 2014 with only 22,9xx miles for more info on vehicle.

Great info and will pass it along to the shop, to make sure everything is looked at.

#8

Agree with Justin - although I doubt it backed off. Even if it’s 1mm from not being pushed all the way, it’s on there solid, but misaligned.

I’ve installed and removed the pulley several times and you really have to
1.) heat it up beyond what APR specs
2.) be really really fast moving it from the oven to the shaft. I’m talking a few seconds here.

If you don’t feel it bottom out when you install, it’s too late and you have to remove it with the pulley tool and heat it up again. The heat transfers so fast to the shaft when you install, you only have one go, literally 1-2 seconds if that.

If you don’t want the shop to remove the pulley and reinstall it, throw in a fresh belt, it’s pretty cheap and easy to install, if you have small hands. Honestly you could put a new one in within minutes.

#9

Karma for you. great information. that should be very helpful

#10

Why were you unable to drive? Looks like the belt went on a diet but still is on there mostly. Was it creating a clatter?

If you could trim the loose bits I’m sure it would hold up for a few miles. What am I missing…feels like I’m not understanding something. Was it slipping and not driving the blower? Doesn’t that mean you drive a NA 3.0 V6 then? I’d think your car could deal with the loss of blower displacement on the fly.

#11

I know I was able to drive it, as soon as the belt shredded (constant rock pebble sound, louder as I accelerated), but I was in a long stretch of the highway and too far to reach home (NY traffic). Yes, it was clattering all around and when I popped the hood, I tried to remove all the shredded pieces as best as possible but as you can see on the last image, there was more stuck further down out of my reach and in my mind I didn’t want to risk it anymore. I started the car up to try and see if I could snail it home, but kept on hearing the pieces hitting around so I just called it off.

#12

Like i mentioned on AZ, would be nice to see a pic of the front of the pulley with the cap off to see if the pulley was installed all the way on.

My bets are that it was not put on all the way, close is not good enough, it has to be all the way onto the shaft. By the looks of your pic, it does appear to be farther forward from the supercharger housing, but that might be the angle you took that pic at.

Next guess would be your crank pulley failed, but that usually takes out the main serp belt first.

Last guess would be just a bad belt, but the chances of that are really slim.

#13

Didn’t take anymore pics and I can’t verify if the pulley cap was installed all the way in or close while I took a look at it, as I was too down at the situation.

I’m still waiting on their call and from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem something that I could’ve caused nor rocks/squirrels/gremlins/unicorns.

The main serp was still good, but it had some leftover pieces and I noticed it shifting up and down (whenever I turned the car on), another reason why I didn’t want to drive it anymore.

#14

Yeah if the rubber is breaking allowing movement of the pulley while the belt is being torqued it can cause the belt to walk/shred. Definitely check that pulley.

https://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalog/jhm-hd-lightweight-crank-pulley-for-30t-fsi-v6-fits-b8-b85-s4-s5-8r-q5-sq5-c6-c7-a6-a7-4l-q7-d4-a8-p-3307.html

#15

Welp, the results are in and my supercharger bearing froze. Everything else is fine and there are no other issues (they checked the crank pulley).

#16

oh wow, thats a first that i heard of this.

#17

Damn! Can the bearing be replaced or you need a new blower? I wonder if the pulley was too hot while put on?

When I installed the APR pulley, I used a small torch. Accidentally made the pulley way too hot…lost most of the paint.

Anyways, sorry to hear this man. It sucks when you treat your car seemingly great (don’t run hard until oil at 180) etc and some weird corner case failure happens. Hopefully you get this sorted without too much $$.

#18

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that…even the shop was shocked to find it happened on a 1 yr old model and their first.

Shop is going to assist and work with the dealer to get it warrantied and replace the blower, they know the tech over there and will be handling everything, so no $$$ out of pocket as it’s a defective SC (yay go me :’() since it could not have been the tune…it was just waiting to happen sooner or later. Here I thought that 20k mi was a good number to consider the car would be running fine and ready for a tune.

They used a mini oven when they installed the pulley, but of course don’t know for how long as I was not gonna stand around and wait under the scorching sun when it was being installed.

#19

Really glad you will get this resolved without any money coming out of your pocket. Lots of TD1’ers have had less favorable results.

#20

Another blown motor from APR. That’s 2 for them and 0 for REVO?