[faz]

Hi everyone,
First of all what a wonderful DIY instruction set. OP and others who have contributed, what a great thread you all have put together.

My 2011 335D is around 77k miles now and this morning ran fine to work, then at lunch time I started it to go run some errands and noticed burnt rubber smell, then loss of power steering, then battery charging red indicator... turned around and parked it back into the spot and looked inside, and seeing some melted rubber around the inner part of the crankshaft pulley. I am sure this is a open and shot case of failed balancer pulley.

I am thinking of doing the job myself, but local shops are quoting $450ish to do the install and due to time limitation and need for a car (we don't have an extra car), I might just go that route.

But to save some money, I am wondering if any of the aftermarket parts are preferred and tried without too much of a performance loss (vibration wise). Or should I just bite the bullet and get the part from ECS tuning or similar that is listing it for $580ish as compared with $720 from dealership?

also, should I just replace the belts while I am at this too? (these all seem to add up very quickly.)

I normally wouldn't think twice about it but as much as I love this car, I may have to replace it soon with a honda pilot for extra room / family reasons.

Any feedback would be appreciated.