Belt system pully job

[AV8R4AA]

I was getting a squeak on one of 2 serpentine belts.
One is standalone AC belt and the other is the main belt.
I took off both belts to find the culprit. All pulleys and items that
are rotating sounded good and smooth.

I removed all 3 pulleys. The bearing are sealed, kind of.
There is a rubber flange/gasket that seals the grease in the bearing.
It's very easy to pop off the black seal and repack the bearing.

I'm sure these were the original pulleys on the X5.
The grease had hardened. And was not lubricating well.
I mopped up then sprayed with brake cleaner all the gelatinous substance.

I then repacked all 3 bearings and reinstalled the seals.
Bolted the pulleys back on and refitted the serpentine belts.

I removed the electric tractor fan for ease of this job.
After installing it into position, I cranked up the mighty 4.4.
Absolutely dead quiet.

This post is for those who can repack a bearing and save 80 bucks on a new set.
It is very easy to do and I spent a few hours and 13 cents on grease.

[Freestyler]

I tried to do just that when i replaced my water pump and realized that my belt tensioner pulleys were rattling when i spun them by hand.

I did not have much luck with it though. No matter how delicately i tried to pry those rubber seals/flanges out, they got deformed to the point where they most likely would not seal anything anymore.
I ended up replacing the pulleys with new ones.

So.. how on eath did you manage to get those seals off -and back on again without damaging them?

[oldskewel]

Here's a DIY thread on this topic, by our own cn90 (same guy, I presume)

DIY: Re-grease the 3 belt pulleys - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

I did that after I first got my x5 and was going through everything.

[AV8R4AA]

The trick to get the seal out is pry up from the INSIDE.
Since the grease gets slung outward, the inner portion of the seal
is less important.
Went for an after dinner drive, still dead quiet.

[Freestyler]

Originally Posted by AV8R4AA

The trick to get the seal out is pry up from the INSIDE.
Since the grease gets slung outward, the inner portion of the seal
is less important.

Thank you. That makes perfect sense.
And of course i attacked them from the outside when i tried it.

[4.8iS Le Mans_NZ]

Have new belts and tensioner pulleys for my truck already, but thanks for the info on repacking the tensioner pulley bearings.
Is there a specific grease grade to use, given the high temperatures present in the engine area?

[AV8R4AA]

I'm sure there is some special factory spec grease, I use Marine grease.

[oldskewel]

There is a good discussion of grease options in the DIY thread I referenced in post #3. I don't recall doing anything too advanced when I did mine, following those instructions.

[CapeX5]

Or this could happen....
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ing-wrong.html