SupDoc

Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum, so please bear with me if I posted in the wrong section. I just need help as quick as possible...I'm on many different car forums, but I don't own a Scion myself, so I've never been here.

This is concerning my brother's used 2007 tc with 72,000 miles. It's a manual, with the only mods being an HKS catback, and an Injen CAI. He's owned the car for just shy of 3 years, and we've already replaced the water pump and the clutch. This is our latest incident...

Today, I got a call from my brother who was on his way to work. He said he was driving under normal conditions, and all of the sudden, his steering got very tough, his battery light turned on, and the car was very boggy. So he pulled over, and I drove down the street to where he was stopped on the road. We popped the hood, saw oil splashed on most of the passenger side of the engine bay, his serpentine belt was very loose and covered in oil, to the point that I took it off by hand just by pulling on it. At first, I thought his power steering pump just broke off and it was leaking fluid on the belt causing it to fly everywhere.

We towed the car home, and I took off the passenger front wheel and the mudguard to check out the pulleys. First thing I noticed, the crank pulley bolt in the center of the pulley was so loose that I removed it with 2 fingers. The pulley was free to spin to a certain degree, so I just literally pulled it off by hand...

This is what I found...


How could this happen? Part of the pulley's bearing/shroud that goes into the timing cover is literally broken. Worst part is, I can't find the piece(s) that broke off. I'm afraid it might have shredded or fell into the oil pan. The front main seal (gasket with a very thin spring wrapped around it) seemed to be in one piece, and there was a tiny rubber seal around the bearing/shroud that you can see in the photo.

Any suggestions on how to fix this in the most economical manner, as well as ideas on how this might have happened? I'd really appreciate the help, because until I fix it, I'll be driving him to work and school, and I'd like to get it running within this week.

Thanks in advance, guys.

-Matt

jprice

Wow, that's insane. I can't believe you guys have had to replace the water pump and clutch and now this in only 72,000 miles. Is it possible that the piece that broke off simply fell out of the engine bay and onto the road? It probably didn't make it into the oil pan. I haven't worked on the pulleys in my tC yet, so I apologize for my lack of specific knowledge, but if you're a DIY-er (which it appears you are), find the part # on the side of the pulley and either order it at the stealership or online. This might be an issue worth informing Toyota of because it's such a weird/rare problem. It wounds like maybe the serpentine belt could have been too tight (maybe just slightly) and it was putting too much pressure on the pulley mount. This shouldn't be an expensive fix if you can do it yourself...there are plenty of threads on engine work so I'm sure you could figure it all out...especially since you already have the car apart quite a bit.

Hopefully someone else on this forum has some experience with this same issue or similar. Good luck!