Steeda UDP caused serpintine belt to shred

[ufnavy06]

Ok most of you know I put the Steeda UDP on my car (well I had them professionally installed) and the other day the belt came off. Towed the car into Ford and long story short, they said the belt was shredded because the crank pulley was seated incorrectly due to the reuse of the harmonic balancer, the torque-yield bolt. So naturally they billed me for all of that. I know the Steeda instructions for the UDP say to reuse that bolt when Ford and all other knowledgeable mechanics say not to. I ended up paying a good chunk of money to get this fixed and I think Steeda should reimburse me for some of it, if not all of it.

I know this isn't a common problem and that from what I've heard, Steeda does a pretty good job of taking care of customers and I do feel badly about trying to recoup some of my bill. However, Steeda knows reusing that torque-yield bolt is not the best way. They could have sent a new one for whatever cost with the UDP and I'm sure it would have been less than I paid for the repairs.

I might ask the shop who installed them for me, but they were just following the Steeda instructions, which once again says reuse the bolt.

I guess I'm asking if you guys think I might have something Steeda might want to hear about.

 

[DarkFireGT]

Sounds like mis-installation. They either didn't put loctite on it, didn't torque it enough, or both. While it may be best to replace the bolt, reuse a few times won't hurt. Heck, I've torqued my LCA bolts at least 4 times and they have yet to fail. If I have to pull them again, I'll probably replace them.

 

[SpartaPerformance]

My UDP's came with a new bolt. A crank pulley bolt is torque to yield, in other words once it's torqued down the first time the bolt head squishes and/or stretches and is no longer useable when removed. I'm surprised that STEEDA does not recommend a new bolt.

 

[bigcat]

my ROUSH pulleys came with a new bolt. it is always best to replace torque to yield bolts. like darkfire, i have reused the suspension fasteners many times. i will also be replacing them the next time they come off for any reason.

for something like the crank, i feel better replacing the bolt.

let us know what the shop and steeda say about the repair bill.

 

[o0Dan0o]

My buddies stock crank pulley on his 03 Mach 1 came off the balancer while we were driving around one day. The pulley was just pressed onto the balancer and it came partway off, throwing the belt off. This was at like 40k miles, just out of warranty... Ford has some funny ways of doing things.
Dan

 

[dro]

Hmm sounds kind of a iffy subject to me. Granted steeda says to reuse it, but that is utter BS. I would get in touch with the people that installed it and go from there. IF anything they should have known to use a new bolt if it was pro-installed.

Just my .02.