Kraftwerks Broken Belt

[fumanchu1]

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.

From memory you may have overtensioned your belt and that may be the cause of the squealing. or like ATL said the unit itself may be on it's way out


I will recommend that everyone use the Gate app. Some said it didn't read proper frequencies but that's because their belts are too loose to even get good readings off of.


BTW I have a KW C38 kit and never snapped a belt (nor has the previous owner) they are very finicky and really need to be set spot on to avoid potential breaks

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by ATL BRZ

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 Sweden for inspection and either approving or denying the warranty.

are they in Sweden or Denmark? I see those two thrown areound when speaking about Kraftwerks

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by fumanchu1

are they in Sweden or Denmark? I see those two thrown areound when speaking about Kraftwerks

Just checked. Denmark. Will edit.

[fumanchu1]

I mean Scandinavia anyways but for the sake of correctness

[morswestford]

how can the unit be on its way out if i have less than 1k miles on it? how is that even possible?

and i followed the tensioning instructions exactly given to me by the engineering dept of krafwerks,

they said tension the belt between 16-18mm, then drive a few hundred miles and re tension it down between 11-13mm, which is exactly what i did.

so i dont understand how i could be having this squealing sound from an overtensioned belt if i followed the exact instructions from kraftwerks.

Originally Posted by fumanchu1

From memory you may have overtensioned your belt and that may be the cause of the squealing. or like ATL said the unit itself may be on it's way out


I will recommend that everyone use the Gate app. Some said it didn't read proper frequencies but that's because their belts are too loose to even get good readings off of.


BTW I have a KW C38 kit and never snapped a belt (nor has the previous owner) they are very finicky and really need to be set spot on to avoid potential breaks

[86Tony]

after reading all this ima stay away from kraftwerks on the fa20 platform. i kno they are great on the honda platform but this is some serious issue

[morswestford]

Well i got a reply back from Kraftwerks.

They said "The whine can only be one of two things… either the idler pulley bearings are finally reaching their threshold after going through belts, tensioning, re-tensioning, belts, etc. or the supercharger has internal bearing issues but usually those are much higher pitched so my initial thoughts would point towards the idler pulleys."

they are sending me a replacement for the pulley bearings.

I hope that fixes the problem and it's not anything more serious.

[morswestford]

well im waiting for kraftwerks to send me the replacement pulleys.

meantime today i was driving on the highway. I went about 10 miles. All of a sudden i heard no more loud squealing sounds when downshifting. I thought, great maybe it just went away. But i also felt i had no more boost. I thought maybe those pulleys stopped working or something.

I got home, popped the hood and saw the belt snapped, laying there at the bottom of my vehicle. Unbelievable. This is my 5th broken belt!

This is unbelievable. I emailed kraftwerks again and now im waiting their reply. I followed their EXACT tension instructions. Someone Please tell me how this could possibly happen? Now I have another broken belt. I cannot get anywhere with this supercharger. Broken belts. Loud squealing sounds from the pulleys.

I thought the belt issue was resolved. Then had the loud squealing sounds from the pulley. Fail. Everything in this system seems to be failing. I haven't even gone 1k miles in it. I have yet to enjoy it and it just keeps breaking on me.

Everything was tensioned correctly and it failed yet again. When i thought one thing got fixed, another thing happens with the squealing from the pulleys. This system is terrible Terrible design, terriblly finicky with the tension, and i cannot keep wasting my life away dealing with troubleshooting this system to get it working. I've spent so much time here and nothing is working.

I wish they would just replace the entire system or refund me. I am wasting my life away trying to get this system to work.

[Bykov]

With a manually tensioned system you cannot rely on their instructions, only on equipment designed to measure belt tension by frequency. I am sorry to say that I personally think you will not find a resolution for your system. It needs constant monitoring and adjusting unlike a system tensioned by the OEM tensioner, which is the route I recommend you take. It will fit your wants a little better as you never have to tinker with belt tension. No other system on the market is known to consider belts as a consumable (except maybe the early vortech kits). So that leaves JRSC, Innovate, and Edelbrock systems. All very good options so you don't have to give up on FI.

Originally Posted by morswestford

well im waiting for kraftwerks to send me the replacement pulleys.

meantime today i was driving on the highway. I went about 10 miles. All of a sudden i heard no more loud squealing sounds when downshifting. I thought, great maybe it just went away. But i also felt i had no more boost. I thought maybe those pulleys stopped working or something.

I got home, popped the hood and saw the belt snapped, laying there at the bottom of my vehicle. Unbelievable. This is my 5th broken belt!

This is unbelievable. I emailed kraftwerks again and now im waiting their reply. I followed their EXACT tension instructions. Someone Please tell me how this could possibly happen? Now I have another broken belt. I cannot get anywhere with this supercharger. Broken belts. Loud squealing sounds from the pulleys.

I thought the belt issue was resolved. Then had the loud squealing sounds from the pulley. Fail. Everything in this system seems to be failing. I haven't even gone 1k miles in it. I have yet to enjoy it and it just keeps breaking on me.

Everything was tensioned correctly and it failed yet again. When i thought one thing got fixed, another thing happens with the squealing from the pulleys. This system is terrible Terrible design, terriblly finicky with the tension, and i cannot keep wasting my life away dealing with troubleshooting this system to get it working. I've spent so much time here and nothing is working.

I wish they would just replace the entire system or refund me. I am wasting my life away trying to get this system to work.

[morswestford]

i agree, it's a horrible design to have a system that needs to be constantly monitored all the time. who wants to deal with all that? i am just following the recommendations from the engineering department of kraftwerks. i assume they would know the exact tension requirements. but honestly i don't know anymore given the fact i followed the instructions and my belt failed again.

Originally Posted by Bykov

With a manually tensioned system you cannot rely on their instructions, only on equipment designed to measure belt tension by frequency. I am sorry to say that I personally think you will not find a resolution for your system. It needs constant monitoring and adjusting unlike a system tensioned by the OEM tensioner, which is the route I recommend you take. It will fit your wants a little better as you never have to tinker with belt tension. No other system on the market is known to consider belts as a consumable (except maybe the early vortech kits). So that leaves JRSC, Innovate, and Edelbrock systems. All very good options so you don't have to give up on FI.

[Bykov]

That's the thing. They wouldn't know the correct measurements for your car. They know the correct tension but the measurement can be different from car to car and belt to belt. 22mm could be perfect for you and 17mm for me. Eventually the belt will settle and the system becomes really low maintenance and reliable but most people will break the belt before it ever does. I recommend you get another kit. I know it sucks but I promise you would be happy with anything else out there. Read the owner's threads for every kit and the SC comparison thread. I did and that's where you can get a real feel for the kit. Vendors will always prefer what they sell.

Originally Posted by morswestford

i agree, it's a horrible design to have a system that needs to be constantly monitored all the time. who wants to deal with all that? i am just following the recommendations from the engineering department of kraftwerks. i assume they would know the exact tension requirements. but honestly i don't know anymore given the fact i followed the instructions and my belt failed again.

[morswestford]

how could they make a kit for this car if the measurements are different from car to car? i don't understand that. shoudnt the belt work for all brz/frs work equally?

and as for the tension, they said to start at 17mm, then drive a couple hundred miles then tension it again at 11mm, which is what i did and that failed.

now that 4th belt broke, i have to start the tension process all over again, and i wonder where should i start and end at now, given their instructions are wrong.

Originally Posted by Bykov

That's the thing. They wouldn't know the correct measurements for your car. They know the correct tension but the measurement can be different from car to car and belt to belt. 22mm could be perfect for you and 17mm for me. Eventually the belt will settle and the system becomes really low maintenance and reliable but most people will break the belt before it ever does. I recommend you get another kit. I know it sucks but I promise you would be happy with anything else out there. Read the owner's threads for every kit and the SC comparison thread. I did and that's where you can get a real feel for the kit. Vendors will always prefer what they sell.

[scarfo]

Use the harmonic app this time.

[Bykov]

I don't know either but they did and people bought it. It is what it is. I honestly was going to buy it but it took them far too long to get CARB approval. Use the app and that is your best hope of making it work for you because changing out kits will cost you a pretty penny.

Originally Posted by morswestford

how could they make a kit for this car if the measurements are different from car to car? i don't understand that. shoudnt the belt work for all brz/frs work equally?

and as for the tension, they said to start at 17mm, then drive a couple hundred miles then tension it again at 11mm, which is what i did and that failed.

now that 4th belt broke, i have to start the tension process all over again, and i wonder where should i start and end at now, given their instructions are wrong.