Replaced vibration damper a month ago.

[TriX5]

A month back wife reported smoke from engine bay upon trying to pull out of the driveway. At first I was stumped by the problem as it manifested itself by a very slow turning alternator. Switching off the A/C will remedy this somewhat. Car was at about 120k miles. Thought I'd post this (belatedly) as a data point.

Once I got in there, I tried to see the central nut in the damper with a mirror (can't remember why I wanted to do so) when i noticed a ragged look in there. Took a much bigger mirror and a bright light and sure enough no connection between the hub and the outer ring of the damper.

Biggest problem was figuring out how to hold the hub still while undoing the torx bolts. (Used a particular style crow bar....) I bought the Febi item from a sponsoring vendor here on XOutpost. It arrived on time and was significantly better priced then the $550 discounted from the dealer. I did get the belts from the dealer as they were harder to find online than I expected.

Today exchanged the diesel fuel filter and bracket which was a bit of a problem as I first had to grind off the 2 half shells (bolts had seized) and then the nuts holding the bracket in were also hard to remove.

Only items to do now are drain and fill of front diff and a couple of bushings in the front suspension. (oh, and an another washer pump....)