(I've never worked on this car before so the following described visuals are guesswork. However I have rebuilt engines & gearboxes in the past so am capable of most car stuff if I understand the issues.)
Started my BMW 320d (03 plate) this morning no problem.
Went to pull away and it was clear that the power assisted steering wasn't working.
With engine still running I popped the bonnet. None of the various pulleys on the front of the engine block were spinning, so I stopped the engine.
Peering through the gaps between the various covers and pipes I can see that a pulley has literally dropped of the end of what I think is the crankshaft.
There isn't room to lift the pulley completely out of the engine bay, but I can see it close enough to see that it looks like it is meant to drive 2 belts.
Feeling around the rear of the pulley (no room to see it) there seems to be some kind of rubber moulding.
Currently on the end of what I think is the crankshaft is a 'pulley' that has 6 or 7 rectangular teeth pointing forwards. It just looks to me like the stray pulley should be sitting on the front of this, although I can't be sure at this time.
To save paying to have the car taken to a garage and someone else fix it, I would rather do it myself if there aren't any special things I need to do that can't be done on my front drive.
I am hoping it's a case of replacing the pulley with a new one, fitting new belts and off I go. But I am concerned that maybe certain things need to be aligned before I tighten things up etc.
So:
- On the face of it is it likely to be a simple unbolt, replace and tighten up job ?
- Is this a known problem ?
- Is there actually far more to this and maybe I should get a garage to do it ?
Also, would anyone care to comment (sensibly) on whether a BMW dealer should do this as opposed to a decent non-BMW garage.
Thanks
Jeff