[Cooper 04]

Hi we did a service on the super charger today(an awful lot easier than I thought it would have been) and in the process we found that the ram on the belt tensioner has failed ,as a matter of interest what does it do and were can we get a replacement one

Thanks

 

[NigelStap]

It is a dampener. It cushions the motion of the main spring, that tensions the belt.

Easy to find on eBay.

 

[CarsOrBikes]

it's a one way damper to resist upward travel of the tensioner arm as the belt tensions under load, and allows the arm to apply constant belt tension as the load relaxes, you can observe the 'lift' while someone revs the engine etc

they can be bought on their own but do not pay Orranje 90 quid for one like a customer told me they had, there are others, or use a complete tensioner assembly from a factors for the same sort of money

 

[Maccmike]

Get yourself a whole kit. Not daft money and easy to put on.
Like any tensioner it keeps the belt nice and tight.
1320 or ebay to buy one.

 

[Cooper 04]

Thanks chaps we,'ll sort that , on a side note when we drained the oil from Sc there was plenty of oil in the pulley side but only a few drop came out of water pump side ,we think someone had previously changed the oil as oil in pulley side was fresh and there was a piece of a torx bit broke in the drain plug ( guessing they didn't have correct Allen key and beat a torx into it ) ,i'm thinking they did it without removing sc as Water Pump o ring was well flattened and hoping they didn't do the water pump side and that would explain the lack of oil in that side ,alternatively could the w,p side of sc be leaking oil ? And if so is can we check for it ?

 

[big jim]

they can be bought on their own but do not pay Orranje 90 quid for one like a customer told me they had

I wonder who that was!

 

[Cooper 04]

New unit came today ,we,'ll have a go at fitting it on Saturday(90+vat)

 

[NigelStap]

There are plenty of videos on YouTube to give you guidance how to fit a tensioner. You may want to replace the idle pulley at the same time (as it is much cheaper and easier to fit) when the belt is off and wheel arch liner pulled back.