Kraftwerks Broken Belt

[post_break]

Yeah that belt is crazy loose. Tighten the belt tensioner until the belt is a little harder to flex, like grab the belt and try to pull it up or down. If it moves more than a few inches it's too loose.

Download the Gates Carbon drive bicycle calculator app on your phone, works on android or iphone. Twang the belt like a guitar string and let the app listen. You're shooting for around 60hz. If it doesn't register just keep tightening the belt until it does. Too loose and it won't even register a sound.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Z4frpBR_w"]Gates belt tension on kraftwerks Scion FRS - YouTube[/ame]

[industrial]

Originally Posted by morswestford

OK so i got the belt replaced, and had it installed and tensioned properly..
at least i thought.

It worked fine for several days. it was smooth and wasnt loud.

now the belt is extremely loud and noisy and violently shakes the entire car. it's almost embarrassing. It's very loud and shakes when idling. i almost cannot wait to rev the engine so the exhaust noise overpowers it.

attached is a video.

does anyone know what the problem is now?

does the belt need to be tensioned again? or what is the cause of this? it doesn't sound right, or feel right, and this can't be normal.

That is really far from normal man. You need to check that install make sure something isn't misaligned or loose. This is my car at stabilized idle for your reference. KW c30 kit with ~12k miles.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63GgMBXBJgs[/ame]

Alot of people won't seat the main crank pulley correctly when installing even a lightweight pulley. That can be a little tricky if you don't deal with these cars specifically. Perhaps that may be your issue? It's hard to tell without putting hands and eyes on your car.

[morswestford]

hey thanks for all the comments everyone.

i took my car to the mechanic that installed the supercharger for me.
he told me that the loud noise is normal because when i start the car after a while or overnight, this is normal , but eventually goes away.

is this true? can any other kraftwerks owner out there validate this? this doesn't sound normal. 2 weeks ago i was driving all day and the loud sound didn't go away. however when i took the car to the mechanic so he can look at the belt last week, the sound started and after 10 minutes it went away and was smooth.

but this doesn't seem normal. shouldn't the belt sound smooth all the time?
can anyone tell me if this is normal or not? it doesn't sound right. i don't want to be stuck with an extremely loud belt that sometimes goes away and sometimes doesn't. that doesn't make me feel comfortable that i have a belt that sometimes is really loud and not.

[industrial]

I see you're in Philly. Go look up moto-east. Take your car there. I'm not sure your mechanic knows what they're doing.

[morswestford]

I contacted kraftwerks about the issue. I gave them my supercharger serial # and pulley #.
they said the belt was too loose and to adjust it so its between 16-18mm, and not 21mm to which it was.

i had the person that installed it to make the adjustments.

now the belt sounds a lot better. it's like 90% better. i sometimes hear the belt making rough sounding noises when starting my vehicle and also sometimes shifting over 3krpm. im not sure how to fix it entirely. maybe i should adjust the belt tensioning again to 16 instead of 18mm. i dont know what else to try.

[morswestford]

So i had my car guy adjust the belt tension to 17mm last month. I've driven several hundred miles since then. Everything sounded fixed. I haven't heard any rough sounds or any weird belt noises when idling or downshifting.

Yesterday, i was driving along, then i heard extremely loud belt noises. I pulled over my car at a gas station. I popped up the hood while the car was on, and saw the supercharger belt shredding itself. literally in front of my own eyes!

I had to take a scissors and cut it off as it was coming apart. It was embarrasing and i am so ashamed to have purchased this product.

This is my 4th belt. Let me say that again, maybe kraftwerks is listening
THIS IS MY 4TH BELT!

I am at my wits end here. My car guy last month uninstalled the components and reinstalled everything. After correcting the tension, for a 4TH TIME. There is obviously a much BIGGER problem with your supercharger.

I am seriously thinking this product is FLAWED. How can a belt brake 4 TIMES? Why does it need to be tensioned 4 TIMES? Why are my belts ALWAYS failing?

I regret wasting over $4k on this supercharger. I honestly feel like throwing it in the garbage. I will NEVER in my life ever buy a kraftwerks product ever again. I knew i should went with jackson racing. I am such a fool for not listening to my intuition. To anyone on this forum considering the kraftwerks system, BUYER BEWARE!

[SPCorBUST]

Originally Posted by morswestford

So i had my car guy adjust the belt tension to 17mm last month. I've driven several hundred miles since then. Everything sounded fixed. I haven't heard any rough sounds or any weird belt noises when idling or downshifting.

Yesterday, i was driving along, then i heard extremely loud belt noises. I pulled over my car at a gas station. I popped up the hood while the car was on, and saw the supercharger belt shredding itself. literally in front of my own eyes!

I had to take a scissors and cut it off as it was coming apart. It was embarrasing and i am so ashamed to have purchased this product.

This is my 4th belt. Let me say that again, maybe kraftwerks is listening
THIS IS MY 4TH BELT!

I am at my wits end here. My car guy last month uninstalled the components and reinstalled everything. After correcting the tension, for a 4TH TIME. There is obviously a much BIGGER problem with your supercharger.

I am seriously thinking this product is FLAWED. How can a belt brake 4 TIMES? Why does it need to be tensioned 4 TIMES? Why are my belts ALWAYS failing?

I regret wasting over $4k on this supercharger. I honestly feel like throwing it in the garbage. I will NEVER in my life ever buy a kraftwerks product ever again. I knew i should went with jackson racing. I am such a fool for not listening to my intuition. To anyone on this forum considering the kraftwerks system, BUYER BEWARE!

This is really sad to read man. Side note, if your belt was shredding itself then I suggest using some compressed air to blow the little fiberglass bits and fibers out of all of the cracks in your engine bay. They tend to blow around due to being at speed and/or the fan being on. Maybe invest in a 5th belt and tune it using the Gates belt app to the frequency mentioned in the manual. Either that, or cut your losses. Not wanting to continue plowing money into the kit is understandable.

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by morswestford

I am seriously thinking this product is FLAWED. How can a belt brake 4 TIMES? Why does it need to be tensioned 4 TIMES? Why are my belts ALWAYS failing?

Same shit, different day: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90485

Though that thread goes into more detail about why it's flawed. I recommend reading the whole thread.

Sorry to hear your experience. I try to talk people out of going with KW for this reason among others. Now that JR offers a CARB legal C38 upgrade I see no reason why anyone would want a KW kit, personally. Every "perk" KW have claimed to have with their kit has come to bite them in the ass making the kit more of a frustration for their owners.

[Cheeseballs]

Well Kraftwerks says one of the features of their system is the car being drive-able with a broken belt. Surely inspires confidence eh?

Sorry to hear about your problems and hope you can move on to something better like Jackson Racing, Edelbrock or a good turbo kit.

[morswestford]

I emailed engineering and the response was this,

"Have you re-tensioned after that 17mm or did you just leave it at that?

A new belt WILL stretch and after the first time you tension, you will have to go back and re-tighten it down to meet the same spec as you had with the belt as new. If the belt was left at 17mm, after the stretch it would've been too loose which would've/could've caused the failure. This is not uncommon with these belts nor a static tension system... if there were an option for an automatic tensioner it would always keep proper tension and you wouldn't have to re-tension anything but that is not the case with our kit so the tension has to be monitored and adjusted as-needed."


Yes I've had it tensioned 4 times already, first at 20mm, then 18mm, then 16mm, then finally 17mm.

This answer is absolutely unacceptable. It's NOT normal for a belt to keep shredding itself once a month after every few hundred miles.

My car is an automatic. I've never been to the track and I don't do any crazy street racing. It's my daily. So please tell me why this is happening.

I asked them to replace the entire system or refund me. My mechanic is at his wits end as he's spent hours re-tensioning the system and even uninstalled it and reinstalled the parts. What else does a person need to do fix the problem? The problem is the product itself. It's defective and does not work. I am not alone with these belt problems.

This product should of been re-called a long time. They should replace my entire system to see if that fixes it, or refund me. Plain and simple. I should not have to spend hours and hours constantly re-tensioning the belt. The belt keeps breaking. It's obviously a bigger issue that's the problem.

[Apoc]

Originally Posted by morswestford

I emailed engineering and the response was this,

"Have you re-tensioned after that 17mm or did you just leave it at that?

A new belt WILL stretch and after the first time you tension, you will have to go back and re-tighten it down to meet the same spec as you had with the belt as new. If the belt was left at 17mm, after the stretch it would've been too loose which would've/could've caused the failure. This is not uncommon with these belts nor a static tension system... if there were an option for an automatic tensioner it would always keep proper tension and you wouldn't have to re-tension anything but that is not the case with our kit so the tension has to be monitored and adjusted as-needed."


Yes I've had it tensioned 4 times already, first at 20mm, then 18mm, then 16mm, then finally 17mm.

This answer is absolutely unacceptable. It's NOT normal for a belt to keep shredding itself once a month after every few hundred miles.

My car is an automatic. I've never been to the track and I don't do any crazy street racing. It's my daily. So please tell me why this is happening.

I asked them to replace the entire system or refund me. My mechanic is at his wits end as he's spent hours re-tensioning the system and even uninstalled it and reinstalled the parts. What else does a person need to do fix the problem? The problem is the product itself. It's defective and does not work. I am not alone with these belt problems.

This product should of been re-called a long time. They should replace my entire system to see if that fixes it, or refund me. Plain and simple. I should not have to spend hours and hours constantly re-tensioning the belt. The belt keeps breaking. It's obviously a bigger issue that's the problem.

Did you or your mechanic ever check the tension with the gates app? Another oldschool method of setting belt tension is by twisting the belt in the longest span. It should twist to about 90 degrees when tension is correct. Several KW owners initially had issues when tension was not set correctly but now are running without any problems. It would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[Spartarus]

You know what the hilarious thing is? Sell the whole kit for 30% off and it'll sell in a day regardless of the problems.

Somebody will decide they can figure out how to fix it.

Hell, they may even be right.

Cut your losses and buy something else.

[morswestford]

Well I think i finally fixed my broken belt issue. My car guy had re-tensioned the belt and went down from 17mm down to between 11-12mm (after driving about 200 miles), as per the exact instructions from Kraftwerks.

But now my car is making really high pitched squealing sounds. It's embarrassing. It does this when going down below 1k RPM to idle.

My car guy put in rotrex traction fluid, but that didn't do anything.

I went on youtube and saw other kraftwerks videos, and nobody else has any high pitched squealing sounds. does anyone know what this is about and how to fix it?

i sent an email to kraftwerks about it and i am waiting for them to reply.

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by morswestford

Well I think i finally fixed my broken belt issue. My car guy had re-tensioned the belt and went down from 17mm down to between 11-12mm (after driving about 200 miles), as per the exact instructions from Kraftwerks.

But now my car is making really high pitched squealing sounds. It's embarrassing. It does this when going down below 1k RPM to idle.

My car guy put in rotrex traction fluid, but that didn't do anything.

I went on youtube and saw other kraftwerks videos, and nobody else has any high pitched squealing sounds. does anyone know what this is about and how to fix it?

i sent an email to kraftwerks about it and i am waiting for them to reply.

Sounds like the SC itself has failed internally. Check this out, same compressor: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99677

Might be warranty time. Which means taking the SC off the car, sending it to KW who have to send it to Rotrex in Denmark for inspection and either approving or denying the warranty.