I’m so embarrassed!

[steve2006]

Did you manage to get any pictures of that old pulley? Never known a collapsed bearing happen before as you normally get a squeal from cold which disappears once the engine warms up giving you some prior warning.

I replaced this and the tensioner bearing when this did happen some years ago with supposedly “quality Japanese bearings” 

[Cels1or]

3 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Did you manage to get any pictures of that old pulley? Never known a collapsed bearing happen before as you normally get a squeal from cold which disappears once the engine warms up giving you some prior warning.

I replaced this and the tensioner bearing when this did happen some years ago with supposedly “quality Japanese bearings” 

Usually there is some sort of sign when it's going. I literally got two chirps of the belt and 15 seconds later or so it snapped the belt. Very strange!

Hope you can see enough in that photo I cant zoom in properly on my phone.

Aaron

[steve2006]

Picture is fine.

Did you recover the pulley cover? It fits between the pulley and bolt as shown below.

[Cels1or]

No that would appear to be long gone. I shall have a dig around in the bay tomorrow it may be stuck somewhere after the firing of the belt.

[steve2006]

May have been thrown off when the pulley got the wobbles, tap the under tray and listen for it.

[Cels1or]

I'm pretty sure its not in the under tray as I dropped my ratchet down there and had to dig around to get it back out. That involved a lot of tapping of the under tray. I shall have a proper look tomorrow now I know I'm missing a bit. Its going up on the ramp on Saturday I believe so can have a real search.

[Mikaelse]

Hmm. To be expected really. 
I exchanged my idlers bearings ( Press needed)  when I bought the car. They where 20 Years old by then and sounded very "dry" . I opened one bearing and the grease looked like black dry cheese , no major damage yet but life left was not long for sure. If you have old rubber lip sealed bearings like this 20 years is about what you can expect in my opinion. More than that is a bonus.  IF not exchanged premptivley highway fails are a clear risk if you do not keep an ear on bearing noise.
The bearings tend to rumble for a while before giving up.  It is also possible to use a simple device , a "Motor stethoscope". You use it very carfully following the instructions .  That will make a bearing in trouble stand out being noisy longer before it fails. You can find that tool for about 10£ inkl shipping and up. 
Also If you have done it before releasing the belt tension is easy and done in minutes and you can then spin all the bearings and feel and listen. 
I have still pushing on 26 years on my 1995 LS400 original bearings in Alternator, Servo Pump, Fan pulley, AC compressor bearings. They all passed the spin test 6 years ago and are not making noise. They could give up at any time but I do expect say a few weeks noise warning me before it happens .  Spin test or Stethoscope is "better" but listening close up with open bonnet for a few seconds is quicker .  

   

[steve2006]

Any updates on the car Aaron? I know you mentioned a few niggles and possibly a damper problem.

[Cels1or]

28 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Any updates on the car Aaron? I know you mentioned a few niggles and possibly a damper problem.

I spent quite a while searching for a replacement damper then after removing them off the car for a better inspection found one of them was completely shot (front left) and rear right was leaking fluid. Gave up and I managed to secure some after market coilovers for now to tide me by. £703 for all 4 including topmounts. On the softest setting they are basically the same ride comfort as the TEMS system in sport mode. They have settled substantially lower than I wanted after a couple days so car is going back in the air to be raised another inch and half in the rear.

On other notes I noticed the steering dampner was leaking some fluid when removed so I am going to measure the stroke of a Mercedes S320 steering dampner as the bolt holes are the same size and I can get a KYB model for £28 delivered. Worth a shot.

Just slowly going round doing my usual thing of future proofing the car for the miles it will receive in the summer going to shows.

[steve2006]

Cheers for the update.

Must admit I hadn’t looked under the arches for a while as I always jet washed under them after each winter to get the salt off them plus the underside and nothing mentioned at the MOT.

It certainly looks better at the rear as it looked a little high after I replaced the KYB springs ( hang onto those as becoming very hard to find now).

Glad it’s found another caring home 😀

[Cels1or]

The full suspension assemblies are in the garage, maybe one day I shall attempt to get them rebuilt as they would certainly be worth something to someone. I must say I'm impressed by the after marked coilovers. I have never fitted them to anything other than performance orientated vehicles so it was a bit different for me looking at lower spring rates to keep the comfort and make it just a touch lower and flat front to rear.

Only reason I found it was a slight fluctuation in the steering over small bumps just on the left hand front wheel. It was out of place to the comfort the car normally gives you. So off I went into the black hole attempting to diagnose. There wasn't any fluid leakage visible on the front shock just the bounce test showed it was way gone compared to the other side. I originally thought it could be the dreaded classic toyota lower ball joint which I was worried about collapsing on me forcing me to investigate.

Sorry for the essay haven't really posted anything about it. 😂

[steve2006]

Cheers again and thanks for the comprehensive update.

If you look in the MOT history it did fail once on front LBJs and it did get OEM Lexus replacements but with today’s roads just one pothole can wreck them or the UCA.