General Crankshaft pulley problems

[Dave G]

Put my car in for a service (2002 2.2 diesel) and told the garage to find out what that rattly noise was,just as well I did as they found the crankshaft pulley had broken and was coming apart.
Apparantly this is a very common problem on the peugeot diesels(where our engines come from,even fiat badged ones),the pulley is made of metal and rubber insert,which separate after a time causing disastrous damage to the engine.
To date Peugeot have refused to acknowledge any problem with the design,so if your diesel makes a slight rattly noise, best get it looked at.
Although this cost me three hundred pounds to fix I'm looking on the bright side of this as a replacement engine would have meant me scrapping the vehicle altogether.
I'll be very cautious about buying another though.

 

[Ffoxy]

FIAT diesel engines are PSA units designed and made in France??

Or is that just that 2.2 engine in question?

There was me thinking my 1.9JTD GPS 1.9 motor was an Italian Stallion!

 

[Gordy]

Last month my crankshaft pulley disintegrated and took out the timing belt, while on holiday in France. Off the road for three weeks forced an extended holiday (upside) with a repair cost of €3911.00
My 2003 Ulysse had 42,000 miles on the clock and has had ALL of the required services carried out by the dealer. Apparently this pulley comprises rubber bits for shock absorbtion which have a tendency to become unbonded. I am submitting a request to Fiat for some sort of recognition or goodwill gesture since this appears to be a common problem which should be the subject of a recall.
There are many instances of this occurence but so far Fiat have not recognised it has a problem. Will a fatal accident change this situation?

 

[Pat H]

Ours failed at 40,000 miles and a few weeks after the end of the 3 year warranty. We got landed with the whole cost of the replacement and Fiat didn't accept any know problem with the pully.

 

[Lou]

Anybody know whether this disintegration is caused by mileage or age? The reason I ask is that my Ulysse is approaching 4 years but has very low mileage.

 

[Pat H]

Well ours was 3 years old and just about 40,000 miles.

 

[Gordy]

Fiat refuse to accept any responsibility for this common problem. Neither the warranty department or customer services are prepared to make any offer concerning my repairs so "buyer beware!". If it's out of warranty you're out of luck. No more Fiats for me.

 

[Lou]

I am getting a bit concerned about this so I decided to ring VOSA (http://www.vosa.gov.uk/) on 0870 6060440. I was put through to the Safety inspectors section. I do have the direct number but they were not keen on me publishing this on a forum. Basically if they get enough complaints about this fault they will investigate. I don't have the fault, yet (hopefully I won't) so they would not take any details from me. Basically, everybody who has had the problem should contact them and labour the safety issues related to it.

Stuart, there may not be enough people on this site who have had the problem. Do you have any contacts on the Eurovan site who may take it upon themselves to spread the word or should I just post it on there myself?

Lou

 

[poggy]

It's also a EU rule, which states a vehicle should be fit for purpose for 6 years, so you can still claim for parts which fail outside of the three year warranty if they are reasonably expected to last longer. I have done it myself in the past.

I would expect a pulley to last a lot longer than 4 years, it is not a consumable part and given the number of failures it is a design fault.

 

[Pat H]

I didn't get any joy from Fiat on our pully failure or our handbreak that the ratchet worn out again after 3 years.

 

[poggy]

I didn't get any joy from Fiat on our pully failure or our handbreak that the ratchet worn out again after 3 years.

Sadly you generally have to go to court and fight it out and even then it is diffcult to actually get paid. It's only worth it if it involves a lot of money.
We did it and they (not Fiat in this case) paid up before it went to court.

I guess it is of no surprise that Fiat Group Automobiles has 6 active CCJ's against them which haven't been paid.

I would fight it our of principle, the design was wrong and they should pay for it.

 

[Pat H]

Well the two problems on ours cost over £700 to fix in less than 6 weeks. unfortunately the dealer kept the old parts (as we expected Fiat to cover it) So I suspect we would be on difficult ground to prove.

 

[Stu DemonD]

Stuart, there may not be enough people on this site who have had the problem. Do you have any contacts on the Eurovan site who may take it upon themselves to spread the word or should I just post it on there myself?

Lou

I don't use EV2 site, have boycotted it ever since the incident a few years back between a member here and their admin....

Best to post it yourself

 

[Pat H]

Well just about to hit 100K miles on our 2003 Uylsse and the crankshaft pulley has gone again.
Thought it sounded rattly when out in it today so decided to give it an oil and filter change.
Took the bottom engine cover off and found some chewed up metal. Not good.
A dig around and I can see the pulley is not centred and has been wobbling around.
I can pick up an ebay pulley but is the 22mm bolt left or right hand thread?
Also the aux belt isn't in good shape so needs changing and both the plastic idler pulleys are lumpy and the running surfaces in poor condition.
Should I change all those or at a 100K will they last as long as the rest...

 

[turbo_pib]

Well just about to hit 100K miles on our 2003 Uylsse and the crankshaft pulley has gone again.
Thought it sounded rattly when out in it today so decided to give it an oil and filter change.
Took the bottom engine cover off and found some chewed up metal. Not good.
A dig around and I can see the pulley is not centred and has been wobbling around.
I can pick up an ebay pulley but is the 22mm bolt left or right hand thread?
Also the aux belt isn't in good shape so needs changing and both the plastic idler pulleys are lumpy and the running surfaces in poor condition.
Should I change all those or at a 100K will they last as long as the rest...

My advice would be to change everything...crank pulley, idlers, tensioner and aux belt...try to look in shop4parts.co.uk as they have original fiat/alfa spares at good prices. The problem is that if you change just the crank pulley and leave the rest untouched there is a very high chance of breaking pulley again because of vibrations and stiffness...i had to replace the lot on my multipla jtd costing me £260!!

 

[turbo_pib]

FIAT diesel engines are PSA units designed and made in France??

Or is that just that 2.2 engine in question?

There was me thinking my 1.9JTD GPS 1.9 motor was an Italian Stallion!

Psa and jtd are different
1.9 jtd are 100% italian stallions made for fiat, alfa romeo and lancia (which will be badged chrysler in uk market)
Jtd are actually fitted to vauxhalls, some saabs and chryslers. Many people that buy vauxhall because they dont like fiat or alfa as apparently they breakdown a lot are amazed when they find out!!

 

[sirias]

had to change my crank pully twice in 3 years definetly a problem with them i am lucky do all repair work my self saved a fortune parts around 70 quid each.(multipla)