Aluminum Pulleys
 

Im doing the m54 water pump replacement today on my 05 3.0i and temporarily reusing my old pulley for it. I ordered the rein aluminum pulley replacement for the water pump too.

Other than the potential for corrosion of the plastic pulleys, is there any benefit to running the aluminum one? And this one looks so pretty, are there other aluminum pulleys I can order? Like for the tensioner/idler

Thanks. It's 20 degrees in Austin and I gotta work on this shit today with like 4 layers and gloves. I couldn't get the tensioner to release yesterday :dunno: but I think I didn't give it enough beans in the cold maybe.

Ouch! Stay out of the wind. Out of the wind and in the sun is not too bad. The power pulley steering can be replaced. I don't know of an aluminum one. I also removed the plastic pulley for a metal one. It does take good force for the tensioner to release.

Yeah, I just the water pump off and I definitely need to do the idler and tensioner, both make noise now. But i gotta order parts for those.

And frequent trips inside to get warm

Do you need pulleys? I think I have one of each you if need some asap. Let me know. I can look through my spare parts box.

Thanks. I actually snapped one of the studs by not using a torque wrench. I’m gonna relax for a bit and then determine if I can get it off with vice grips or by cutting a slot. Monday I’ll have to go to the dealer and get four of the studs to replace all of them.

Unfortunately this is what I should expect for not using a torque wrench and thinking, hmm this is still loose. I think this is the second time I’ve snapped something.


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Ouch! I checked my spare parts box. I have two tensioner pulleys. Plus one off set idle pulley. Both are new on mine so I won’t need new ones for a long time. Good luck!

Thanks again, I’m likely going FCP route for lifetime coverage. It’s barely making noise and slows quickly, but it’s good enough for me to be comfortable for a month max.

There was enough thread left to vice grip the bolt and remove the broken part.

I went to Home Depot and bought M6 1.0 stainless steel machine screws but it seems they don’t line up completely. They didn’t have headless ones in metric. They’re so close, I was going to cut the head off of them and use them until I get my aluminum pulley next week. But they don’t thread past an 1/8th of an inch, so I’m still going to have to wait until Monday to hit the dealership for the studs.

Here’s a pic if anyone could explain my misfortune of a christmas miracle lol.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...16ddf137cf.jpg

Are the original stud threads m8x1. 5?

Aluminum Pulleys
 

I’m not sure, at Home Depot the stud threaded what I mentioned. I found it on RealOEM, part 07129904544 which says M6X30. I didn’t try 1.5, just 1.0. I don’t know if there was a 1.5 thread tester at Home Depot, just 1.0

Also, would I need to cut the head off the bolt to have the threads reversed? Like the threads on the engine are reversed. So maybe the problem I had earlier is the thread direction.

Stay warm in all of this.

I've been driving my X5 in the Austin cold this weekend and getting "check coolant level", but don't have any spare BMW coolant until Tuesday when I can pick some up...

Just so we have resolution to this thread, I bought 4x m6 1.0 40mm bolts. The ones on the block are shorter.

I sawed off the Philips head of two stainless steel 40mm bolts, had a friend with a metric tap and die come over. He, with a little oil, made sure the threads were good on the new threaded shafts we created by using the die.

We also verified the threads inside the block were good by using the tap. Very lightly we threaded through and cleaned out debris and stuff, which I assume is loctite. The new ones were a couple mm longer but don’t come close to interfering with the pulley.

I have oem bolts on hold at the dealership. The first dealership quoted me $10.42 PER bolt, which coincidentally is 10x the price on real oem of $1.42. What a coincidence, huh. Second dealership said $4 per bolt. Fuck it, they came from Dallas.

Successfully installed new water pump, no leaks for 30ish miles.

My power steering pump is actually what’s making noise, the hoses are gone at the reservoir and it leaks from there. Both hoses arrive tomorrow.

So all in all, you can use m6x1.0 bolts, just use a die to make sure the threads are good on the new shaft. I’m unsure of whether shitty home depot stainless steel in the aluminum block is bad or not. The cold maybe made the original shafts more brittle, but I think I need to quit hitting the gym for a little bit :toobuff: and use a torque wrench even on small stuff.


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I have always replaced my water pump pully with aluminum. That is the only URO product I have ever liked. I feel it dissipates heat better and gets a constant blast of air.