m44 engine idler pulley
 

Is there supposed to be a second idler pulley on a 98 318ti, the one that would be the top one above the tensioner one next to and closest to the oil filter housing, see my pics, I don;t know if I'm missing it or if the later ti's don't have them, I certainly do have the threads for it.

anyone on here with a 98 or 99 ti, please check to see if you have this pulley, thanks.

My '97 has one. I'll take a pic of it for you tomorrow.
LouM...

Edit: RealOEM shows one for the '98.

96 M44
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/p...psoicn5hao.jpg

95 M42
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps9l7bc6yx.jpg

Cheers! :cool:

Hey I just ran outside to check my 98... no pulley... exact same as you have it. Sorry no pic... snorkel etc in the way for night time pic.

I'll look at my 98 tomorrow. :cool:

Geez after looking thru the inter webs, i may be missing mine as well. :/

I figure I better check before it storms tomorrow...

98 M44 - No upper tensioner pulley
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/p...psoowfzbso.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/p...pshbixhpgq.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/p...psw0qwomla.jpg

Wonder why? :cool:

My 1998 318ti M44 engine have only pulley, one at the A/C Compressor Belt Drive and the other one is at the Water Pump/Alternator Belt Drive. See attached

If you want to save money when replacing the Mechanical Belt Tensioner (item #2), from the previous attachment, you can just replace with item # 6 (Adjusting Pulley), see the attachment but make sure the Mechanical Belt Tensioner is serviceable otherwise replace the Mechanical Belt Tensioner Assembly.

thanks guys!!! so here is my thought, why do the later ti's not have the pulley? if you look at my pic in the first post, without the pulley the belt barely grabs only 25% (90 degrees) of the alternator pulley, still spins fine, but wouldn't you be better off as a precaution to have this pulley installed? at which time the belt would grab about 50% of the pulley (180 degrees)? I'd love to know the reasoning behind 98-99s not having them.

after searching bfc it's varied on bigger engines too.

My 98 doesn't have it, BUT...
 

...found the spacer for the pulley lodged within the Intake Sandwich recently when I had it apart. So did mine originally have it and the PO took it off? Highly likely. PO had lots of things apart on the car over the years. One less pulley would mean less tension on the belt drive system, but since I found the spacer loose in the engine I'm guessing mine originally had the idler pulley.

I bought the pulley so I'm going to see what happens....