Gen 3 - Crankshaft pulley bolt --add me to the list.

[gregrowell]

Hello Viperland from Big D.,
'03, 2nd owner, bought in '11 at 3,900 to now 48K miles. Loved every one of them. Recently shredded the serpentine belt (only on the edge of the belt closest to the front of the car). Looking around and thought...what they heck. I hear about the ole' crankshaft pulley (large bolt) coming loose. Well in a dark garage, reached and grabbed it, turned and got the surprise of a lifetime. It was on finger tight. Yikes. I am 99% sure, this was minutes from coming off.

The crankshaft pulley had moved about 1" forward. Now the fun part, my friend and I removed the air box and for 03's ----250ft. lbs. I'm an old man, so it took both of us, carefully torqueing that thing up to 250ft-lbs. (Used blue loctite in case it needs to come off again as I was just trying to limp it to a mechanic the next day.) Also, put a line across that mega-bolt and pulley with a marker pen--to see if it moves again. Not too bad to put on the new belt. Back in business. I watched that crankshaft pulley move at least 1" backwards toward the blockk and back in alignment with the other pulley(s)...geez. Dodged a bullet--no pun intended.

Learned a lot about this searching on this forum too--thank you.

 

[daveg]

Also, put a line across that mega-bolt and pulley with a marker pen--to see if it moves again.

I always tell people to Index the bolt to pully with white paint or reasonable facsimile there of..
Look at it frequently at first and then every oil change / when bored their after.

 

[Dyno Dave]

The damper must be seated all the way before torquing the bolt. There is a tool to do this. Trying to pull the damper on with the bolt will not bottom it. That is why it comes loose. It wasn't assembled properly.