So........ i have a rattling noise coming from a drive belt pulley,
I think it's the one in the attached picture, the one with the 4 silver screws.........
What does this pulley do???????? Anyone else got this problem????

 

That would be your water pump.
Grab a piece of hose and hold one end to your ear, the other end CAREFULLY probe around the area where the noise seems to be coming from. You should be able to localize the spot where the noise is coming from. I would suspect the pulley/bearing before the water pump.

 

bearings issue?
-steve

 

This bearing is the water pump bearing. I doubt that the bearing and seal is easily replaceable. Sounds like $$$$$

 

Right........will get the hose out & see if i can pinpoint the problem.
I can move this pulley up & down/side to side, by hand tho'........ seems to be a bit of play there...........

 

Presuming the bolts are not loose, that means the bearing is shot. Any signs of coolant leaking down the front if the pump?

 

No coolant leak yet......probably leave it till it does leak.
Can be sure it's the water pump then i suppose.

 

My water pump went out at 30k with the same rattle and play. Its easy to replace. You can get one off ebay for about $60. There should be no play in the pulley, your bearings are shot. I had to flush my engine and radiator to remove the aluminum particles.

 

Looks like prices have gone up since I bought mine. You maywant to check with your local dealer for a better price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/New-W...Q5fAccessories

 

Cheers for the advice Chuck, but how easy is it to replace??
I envisage taking the pulley off first, but how easy is it to get to the screws holding the pump on???
Looks like a fix sooner than later is required.........will probably buy from the States. Although i'm in U.K. have a feeling it'll be cheaper to import.

 

You should be able to do this easily. You don't even have to take off the fan. Every time you here the pulley rattle, it is moving enough that the impeller inside can contact and damage the interior. At least thats what happened to mine. You'll spend the most time cleaning the old gasket material away and flushing the cooling system. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours at the most. Do you have the service manual?

 

Just downloaded the pdf Xfire_Repair_7-Cooling.pdf from online.
Looks like a serious amount of screws to undo........does'nt mention any special tools tho'.........don't have anything fancy, just metric sockets & spanners.
£254 from Chrysler dealer for the pump alone, have found a supplier that can do one for £71, won't be a Mercedes part tho'.......

 

You can wash, polish and buff your car a thousand times but you never really know your car until you have repaired or replaced some items on it. Thats when you bond with it or decide to get one that's less trouble.

 

Well........the most difficult bit was getting the undertray off to get to the radiator drain plug.............
Seriously tho'......not a difficult job with a decent set of star sockets,
& no special tools required, just used my 3/8" socket set.
Surprised the Mercedes pump went on 24,000miles, only good thing was there was no evidence of the impellor slicing into the Aluminium casing.