Hi. I had the VAP touring (quad) exhaust put on my car and the pulley and tune. Anyway when I first got the car back it had a very strong odour in the car, like an oily rubbery smell. I thought it might have been the old belt and pulley in the boot but I gave them a sniff (I'm known as "the bloodhound" at work) and I dont think it is that. I think it is probably just the workshop smell that has gotten into the car. It is gradually improving (I have cleaned the interior, been driving with windows down and leaving them open in the garage) but it is lingering. Any suggestions? I dont want to use a scent to mask it, because they always smell like a prostitute's panty drawer. I was thinking of a tray of bicarb or something like that.

 

My VAP quad did have a mild odor burning off the fabricating oils when new, but it only lasted a day or two. Any oil showing up on the garage floor?

Check your pipes. You may have a plastic bag stuck to them.

 

Cheers. No oil on the floor, I'll look for the plastic bags. I think it has just kind of infused into the cabin. Sounding wicked by the way, it sounds and drives better in dynamic I think because it is holding the revs up a bit more (mine is auto). Not noticeably louder in dynamic, though.

Really, I actually prefer this engine note to the XKR, it is much deeper and less raspy.

 

Bruce,
I guess you got the wrong pulley / wrong belt / shredded belt fixed?
If so what was the cause of the problem?

 

Gooday! Yes there is a new style of belt which they were waiting on, it has the ridges on each side whereas the one they put on had the fabric on the outside. Anyway it ended up being supercharger belt spaghetti. All running very nicely now, I've had it for a decent run along the M1 (a bit droney at 110kph but nice at 100kph), lovely around town and wicked under overpasses, I'm used to the extra power now so I barely notice it.

 

Yep, running the smooth side of a belt on a grooved idler will tend to shred it in just a few miles.

 

Strange, even after the mix-up I had with the wrong pulley the replacement belt was still single-sided (ribs on the inside and smooth on the outside) and not a single problem.

 

Looking at the diagram of the front of the AJ133SC engine in the Technical Training doc (the AJ126 has the exact same SC belt set-up) there are two idler pulleys and one tensioner pulley, and all three appear to be smooth although one of the idler pulleys (top left) runs against the ribbed side of the belt.
I know for sure that both the OEM and replacement tensioner pulley are smooth.
Per my previous post what you are saying doesn't make sense as I have run the single sided belt for some 18 months now with zero problems and so have plenty of others.
Or are you suggesting that the supplied SC crank pulley and belt somehow came with a replacement tensioner pulley that was grooved instead of smooth?

 

I think it is the latter from a few comments that the workshop made. Stuart might know because he mentioned in another thread he was sending a new batch to the Oz agents. I had to wait for them to arrive before I could get my car back on the road.

 

Still doesn't make sense to me, no way I can see that any half competent shop would install a ribbed idler pulley running against a smooth belt face.
I'm sticking to my theory that the pulley was the wrong offset and/or the belt was the wrong length and as a result the belt was chewed up by the edge of the pulley.

 

On my car, all OEM pulleys for the SC belt were ribbed. Because limited double-sided belt sizes were originally available, I had to install a smooth idler and one-sided belt. Eventually, the proper size double sided belt became available and I was able to go back to the OEM ribbed idler.

 

Ribbed, for your enjoyment.

 

I stand corrected oh unhingd one!
I just went out to the car to check the belts and pulleys as best I could by just opening the bonnet/hood and shining a torch in, but I couldn't see let alone feel much at all.
So I pulled out the old OEM crank pulley, belt and tensioner pulley and lo and behold the tensioner pulley is ribbed (the replacement tensioner pulley is smooth) and the belt is double sided, ie ribbed on both sides!!!!
Except I think you are mixing up the idler pulleys (two of 'em) with the tensioner pulley.
Then again although I am/was 99% sure that the replacement pulley which came with my ETS kit was the tensioner pulley (I am sure it was described as this) it's possible it is one of the idler pulleys instead.
Maybe Stuart or Chris can set us straight on all this!
Anyway, attached is the page from the AJ133 Technical Training doc showing the various SC pulleys and the SC belt path, and although it still looks to me that the belt is ribbed on one side only and smooth on the other side that could be an illusion. Same with the two idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley, they look to be smooth but they could in fact be ribbed. Or else ribbed or smooth changed with the AJ126, the plot thickens!

 

The stock one was smooth on one side, I still have it sitting at home with the stock pulley (surprisingly light, it wouldnt weigh any more than an empty coffee mug [he says, lifting an empty coffee mug])

 

The plot thickens even more!
It looks like they changed from a double sided belt to single sided from MY 2015 to MY 2016 or maybe 2016.5.
Also, looking closely at the diagram I posted earlier, there is only one pulley which runs against the "outside" of the belt (the smooth side on a double sided belt) and that is the lower of the two idler pulleys, the one just above and to the left of the crank pulley. So I'm guessing that this is the replacement "smooth" pulley I now have on the car and not the tensioner pulley.
Stuart and Chris, we need your help and advice!

Edit - I vaguely recall Stuart or Chris explaining some time ago that the later version of the larger crank pulley with the double sided belt no longer needed a new "tensioner" pulley, just leave the OEM one in place, which would make sense if we are talking about the lower of the two idler pulleys.
Of course I could be completely wrong about which pulley is correctly called a tensioner pulley and which is correctly called an idler pulley, it's just that I assumed the one with the "arm" hanging off it was the tensioner pulley and the other two were idler pulleys.

 

OEM configuration for June 2015 production (MY16) was a double-sided SC belt.

 

Bruce reckons his MY 2016.5 had a single sided belt so that looks like when the change was.
Also, I just checked out the Eurotoys site and it definitely says idler puller not tensioner pulley, and the VAP site doesn't mention either any more (ie no pulley change needed), so it seems my theory about needing to swap the lower idler pulley for a smooth one to work with the single sided belt may be correct.

 

One question Bruce - what colour is your OEM crank pulley, silver or black?
Mine is silver and it weighs a helluva lot more than an empty coffee mug unless of course your coffee mug is ginormous and/or lead lined!

 

I was just taking the picture and realised that the old belt is ribbed on both sides. It must have been the failed one that wasnt. Oopsies! A bit heavier than I remember, maybe 500g?

 

Geez Bruce, you just destroyed all my theories and arguments, thanks mate!

Edit - same OEM pulley and same OEM belt as mine so who knows when JLR changed to the black pulley and maybe a single sided belt.
As I keep saying, the plot thickens (yet again)!