The other day my 2000 DII was making noises which made me look under the hood (Kinda like a loud wooshing noise)... what I found was the 70mm idler pulley just below the tensioner no longer existed. All that remained was a burnt up bearing. I put the new pulley in yesterday as well as a new belt (Both parts came from LR), and went home. This morning As I left for work, I was hearing something else, so I stopped (2 houses away) and slowly backed up to my house. No more noise for a few minutes Then a chunk of the old pulley flew out, my guess is it was sitting at the bottom of the fan shroud... After looking around more and making sure no more pieces were down there, I noticed that the radiator was spraying from a pin hole in the fins. I called around and had a part store get a new radiator. Durring the down time I figured I might as well do something productive, so I replaced the spark plug wires with red 9mm magnacores (Had them sitting around since last summer). After that I wanted to investigate the radiator problem again, but this time it was not leaking. I warmed up my LR, ran it through the gears, and still not a drop. So I grabbed gallons of water took it for a 3 mile ride to pick up the new radiator, flush kit, water wetter, and green antifreeze, still not a drop leaked, I ran a few erands and then went home and the fluid is still at the same spot and still not leaking.

I have a few questions, the old pulley I never really paid much attention to it, but was it plastic? The pieces I found in my driveway are all plastic, but the new one Land Rover sold me seems to be all metal.

My next question is, the fan, one blade seems to be cracked, The fan clutch and water pump are a few months old. would it be safe to drive with a cracked fan while I wait for a new one? Should I cut away the cracked portion of the 1 blade, or will it make the blade off balance?

Back to the radiator issue, it currently has dexcool in it, could that stuff have gummed over itself and sealed its own leak? I know i wasn't seeing or feeling things when I saw and felt the mist of antifreeze from the fins in the radiator. I am switching over to the green either way, and replacing the radiator, but just thought it was weird the leek was gone after sitting for a couple hours while I changed the wires.

What could have caused the pulley to have destroy itself, and does it mean something else may be on its last legs?

Thanks,
Scott

 

It means that you have forgotten to burn meat to honor the Rover gods. Or someone threw a copy of Murphy's Law in your garage.

1. Plastic pulleys can and do shatter from stress cracks.

2. Cutting away the fan will make it much worse. This is one of those times overnight delivery is worth it if it gets truck back on the road (if it is your one and only).

3. If you were just driving non-stop you could take off fan. But don't go thru the drive thru or get stuck in traffic.

4. Rad won't stay fixed long with the "sealer" function of the Dexcool. Heat and cold cycles will work on it every day. But everyone remebers the old Prestone commercials whre they poked holes in the can of antifreeze and it sealed itself up.

 

IF the fan comes apart while driving it can take out your radiator and hood.
What made the bearing fail? I dont know, you are going to have to install another one and see if the belt is running true.
I dont know how much they cost, maybe look for a used one or three until you figure out the problem?

 

the pulley isn't priced bad , i think it was under 35 bucks with tax from land rover (Would have been 25 from AB if I wanted to wait for it to be shipped)... the new one is metal though, so i could imagine just the bearing siezine up is all

I'll be ordering a new fan in the morning, just don't have the patience to do it tonight. Still can't figure out what caused the old pulley to be destroyed, but I am guessing a piece of the pulley is what cracked the fan blade

 

Plastic idler pulleys are good for about 100k is most european cars. They start to make noise at first start up cold, then the noise goes away warm. They will seize and then spin off turning the radiator fan blade into plastic spears. (ugly)

 

if you check the post from last week a radiator can be had for under $200, I would order one now. You willl be looking for it in a few days.

 

I did already buy the new radiator along with green antifreeze & the stuff to flush, as well as water wetter. Only took a couple hours for the store to get the radiator, yeah I paid more than the 200 you mention, but still way below dealership prices, but I have it for when I get the time to install it

 

Don't forget to replace the t/stat at the same time, and at your mileage I would replace the coolant pressure cap also.
As for the pulley, you have 2 more idler pulleys that should also be replace, normally when one of the old style pulleys fails, the other two are not far behind.

 

good point about the other pulleys, they are all in the same conga line...

 

I do have a question, could the tensioner have gone bad, and be putting too much pressure on everything?...This time was the pulley, but I did have the water pump fail earlier this summer & replaced the fan clutch because of the pita that it was trying to seperate the 2. Everything else on the front of the engine seems to be running fune