[pal99]

Hello All,

Newbie here, after much investigating I have figured my harmonic balancer needs replacing: burning rubber smell, loss of power steering (belts are still spinning fine for now), and chunks of rubber in the crankshaft pulley. Car has 97k miles.

A lot of the threads I've been reading have recommended Febi (not considering Fluidampr) but they are at least 2 years old. Curious if there's been any other better development since then.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a new harmonic balancer?

I do have some limited mechanical abilities, can I do this myself? Or is there someone in SE Michigan that could help me?


Thank you in advance!

[RL18]

I used Fai automotive HB

Can be found by googling "FAI Automotive Viscous M57 Harmonic Balancer"

Like it a lot so far! Quiet and smooth! Also did clutched alternator pulley, water pump, thermostat, and both belts.

From what I've heard fluidamper had a "bad batch". But I decided to do FAI.

[335stoner]

any fluidamper you buy now should be good to go.. just installed one on a customers car and it was correct.. anything that is "bad" is out in the wild and will eventually get sorted out..

I installed a Febi on my car, but then heard about FAI (whitbreadpeformance) and was very happy with how it felt.

[RL18]

Originally Posted by 335stoner

any fluidamper you buy now should be good to go.. just installed one on a customers car and it was correct.. anything that is "bad" is out in the wild and will eventually get sorted out..

I installed a Febi on my car, but then heard about FAI (whitbreadpeformance) and was very happy with how it felt.

Yeah FAI is super quiet. It's 50/50 viscous and rubber inside which helps a lot with vibrations. Only vibrations I get is when I'm sitting still and go to turn the wheel, other then that vibrations aren't there. I'm sure the clutched pulley helps a ton too.

[BB_cuda]

Originally Posted by RL18

Yeah FAI is super quiet. It's 50/50 viscous and rubber inside which helps a lot with vibrations. Only vibrations I get is when I'm sitting still and go to turn the wheel, other then that vibrations aren't there. I'm sure the clutched pulley helps a ton too.

Finally, someone said the key word [vibrations]. The greater community continues to call this part a harmonic balancer. It is a harmonic damper [notice i didn't say dampener]. It damps vibrations but is mass symmetric. M57 is an internally balanced engine and requires NO external balancing. I know the majority here don't care but please stop repeating the wrong name because you don't know any better.

To answer OP's intended question, I run Fluidampers on both our 2011 335d and 2013 X5D.

[robnitro]

Fai is similar to oe. Someone cut an oe and found fluid inside too.
Fai just seems a bit sturdier.
Fluid damper is alright but has anyone run one without the clutched alt and it was good as oem?

[RL18]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

Finally, someone said the key word [vibrations]. The greater community continues to call this part a harmonic balancer. It is a harmonic damper [notice i didn't say dampener]. It damps vibrations but is mass symmetric. M57 is an internally balanced engine and requires NO external balancing. I know the majority here don't care but please stop repeating the wrong name because you don't know any better.

To answer OP's intended question, I run Fluidampers on both our 2011 335d and 2013 X5D.

Hahaha Vibration Damper isn't very catchy

But seriously my whole dashboard use to vibrate when the stock was going bad. Now that the FAI is in I'd say 90% of the cabin vibrations are gone. The only thing causing vibrations is the resonators on my exhaust, which I will be using some dynamat in the trunk to help with that hopefully

[RL18]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Fai is similar to oe. Someone cut an oe and found fluid inside too.
Fai just seems a bit sturdier.
Fluid damper is alright but has anyone run one without the clutched alt and it was good as oem?

I was under the impression a clutched alternator pulley was required with fluidamper? Or at least strongly recommended

[cm335d]

I like the stock BMW part. Do not buy the Vaico one, it sucks.

[BB_cuda]

Originally Posted by RL18

Hahaha Vibration Damper isn't very catchy

But seriously my whole dashboard use to vibrate when the stock was going bad. Now that the FAI is in I'd say 90% of the cabin vibrations are gone. The only thing causing vibrations is the resonators on my exhaust, which I will be using some dynamat in the trunk to help with that hopefully

Thanks for acknowledging my input. My suggested name is harmonic damper. The crankshaft sees vibration as each cylinder combustion occurs with torsional vibrations running the length of the crank with harmonics ( 1x, 2x,3x) the combustion frequency.

I will get off my high horse as I know people have the balancer name engrained in their brains from POS small block chevys always needing them. Big block chevys too. But not forged crank Mopars (340, 383, 426 hemi and 440 six pack).

[335stoner]

Originally Posted by RL18

I was under the impression a clutched alternator pulley was required with fluidamper? Or at least strongly recommended

i think its highly recommended as it removes unwanted vibrations that are caused by the pulley (SMH). shortly after the initial release a lot of people complained about a vibration at idle (if i remember right)

Then we had that one dude lose his shit over knowing the fix and not wanting to tell anyone then wanting all the credit and money

[RL18]

Originally Posted by 335stoner

i think its highly recommended as it removes unwanted vibrations that are caused by the pulley (SMH). shortly after the initial release a lot of people complained about a vibration at idle (if i remember right)

Then we had that one dude lose his shit over knowing the fix and not wanting to tell anyone then wanting all the credit and money

HAH yep I saw that thread. That guy was whack

[robnitro]

My point is that the fluid damper is not as good as the stock "hybrid" damper. It needs a clutched pulley to be smooth, which means the stock type dampers actually work better. Maybe on a high rpm Gasser, the fd might be leaps ahead, but I don't think so for the diesels.

[RL18]

Originally Posted by robnitro

My point is that the fluid damper is not as good as the stock "hybrid" damper. It needs a clutched pulley to be smooth, which means the stock type dampers actually work better. Maybe on a high rpm Gasser, the fd might be leaps ahead, but I don't think so for the diesels.

Exactly. Isn't the alternator pulley the reason for the stress on the harmonic damper anyways?

[Tambohamilton]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

Finally, someone said the key word [vibrations]. The greater community continues to call this part a harmonic balancer. It is a harmonic damper [notice i didn't say dampener]. It damps vibrations but is mass symmetric. M57 is an internally balanced engine and requires NO external balancing. I know the majority here don't care but please stop repeating the wrong name because you don't know any better.

To answer OP's intended question, I run Fluidampers on both our 2011 335d and 2013 X5D.

Well said! Now please can you also correct everyone who doesn't refer to our stock front struts as 'coilovers'... That one grinds my gears!

Back on topic, vaguely; my car vibrates/grumbles when turning the steering with the engine at idle. I assumed it was one of the steering rack or pump going bad, but could that really be the damper giving up? It's the original one, which is now 130k miles old.

[montr]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Well said! Now please can you also correct everyone who doesn't refer to our stock front struts as 'coilovers'... That one grinds my gears!

Back on topic, vaguely; my car vibrates/grumbles when turning the steering with the engine at idle. I assumed it was one of the steering rack or pump going bad, but could that really be the damper giving up? It's the original one, which is now 130k miles old.

Another common failure is the motor mount. My passenger side motor mount failed before 100K miles. I replaced both.

[Thecastle]

Originally Posted by RL18

I was under the impression a clutched alternator pulley was required with fluidamper? Or at least strongly recommended

I’ve had two fluid dampers installed on my car. The fluid damper does not work as a drop in replacement for the stock vibration damper. The fluid damper does not quell vibrations as effectively as the stock damper. This was discovered by early installers after release of the damper. as a work around to the substainal increase in vibrations aarod added a clutched alternator pulley to compensate for the fluid dampers lack of damping ability. This reduced idle vibrations to a more acceptable level. How effective this work around depends on your setup. Some folks find the pulley makes their car a little smoother than stock, others like myself will tell you it’s not as good as an oem damper. Especially on my car when pulling out of the driveway at idle and turning the steering wheel it’s rougher and louder than stock, but when the engine is fully warmed it’s about the same.

Without the clutched alternator pulley you will not be happy with the fluid damper. Also there are better pullies than aarod supplies, that could reduce vibrations further.

[HudZ]

When you buy the Fluidampr you get one for free, so it's a moot point. Even without the fluidampr it's better to have a clutched pulley from what I've read when researching what exactly it is.

Also depends on your time frame. I ordered my Fluidampr a month ago (pre-order discount) and still haven't gotten any sign that they're even close to getting them in stock.