EastonDLE

Hey guys, has this ever happened to you?

Here's the story...I've been a helping a friend of mine with his EG turbo gsr project and we've been using these stupid AEM pulleys. The reason I say stupid is because the damn thing keeps snapping the belts! Not once, not twice, not even three friggin times...but four! Yes, I said four! And of course, like dumbasses we are, we keep on using AEM, thinking it was something we did, maybe too much tension...etc., but after 4 times, I give up. Now I know it wasn't us. THESE THINGS ARE CRAP!

There's been times when I've looked into the bay and notice that the flippin belt is turned 180...the damn thing isn't suppose to do that! After an adjustment to realign the belt...SNAP there it goes...I've had it! The belts have actually grooved aluminum. I know its aluminum and that heat can make it soft and blah blah...but crap, this stuff is suppose to be aircraft material. Billet 6061 my ***!

Sorry for the ranting and raving, but I had to voice my opinion and see if you guys have had the same headaches we've gotten from this piece of junk. I was pretty skeptical about AEM products, but now I'm convinced they're crapola!

Here are some images:







Thanks for listening!

egOt

Just because you had a bad experience with one AEM product doesn't mean all their products are ****.

delScho

We built a custom supercharger for a GSR motor and had the same problem with belts flipping and getting eaten. It ended up that we simply needed to ad a tensioner to the appropriate side of the belt (one side has stretch, and the other has slack under loads), and the problem went away.

I don't know how you would add one, but I wish you the best of luck. If it were me, I'd throw a stock pulley on it and add another half pound of boost (or less). Should clear everything right up.

EastonDLE

you're right, I didn't mean all the products...but these pullies are on my DO NOT BUY list!

Deemeetree

I've only heard bad things of AEM pulleys and cam gears. Their intake systems are good, their fuel rails, etc...but as far as pulleys, nothing bad bad reviews. BTW, why didn't you upgrade to an ITR unit and leave other power components (A/C and P/S) stock?

Jlo96Hatch

It looks like you just need to check the tension on that bad boy. I know a lot of guys around here who have aem pulleys that work fine. No wear or nothing.
But next time ya know

Dengar

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by delScho &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> If it were me, I'd throw a stock pulley on it and add another half pound of boost (or less). Should clear everything right up. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i agree

suspendedHatch

Their cam pulleys used to suck, but they've been revised so I don't know if they still suck. Their intakes suck. Their brake kits suck. I haven't seen their other crap but I've heard bad things about some of it. I like the EMS though although that's a whole other part of AEM altogether.

Team 4

I have the AEM pulleys and have had no problems at all.

delScho

Remembered another thing... when we had the tension wrong and stood over the engine bay revving it at the TB, you could watch the belt hit strange harmonics at certain RPMs. This normally didn't cause any problems except when you were really giving it WOT all of a sudden, or closing it just as fast. That is what tended to east them and flip them.

Like Jlo said, check the tension. But it may also be suffering from the ill effects of not having a harmonic dampener in the pulley.

EastonDLE

I agree with shaundrake...I try to keep all the parts I get consistent with the manufacturers, thinking that they've gone through the proper R&D and so on for my car or for any car in general, but to have repeated bad luck experience from it, I've ruled myself out as the culprit. ... I mean I like some of their other products, but i just find it harder now to look at AEM...It's like the red headed stepchild of the import market in my eyes (no offense to any red-headed step childs out there )

Grip

most likely the installer did somthing wrong to cause i knopw alot of people with aem pullys on thier cars and not one of them has ever had a problem..i have the alternator pully on my car and its been fine for 4+ years

3.3.3

are you using OEM belts as replacements?

EastonDLE

nope, using supplied belts with the kit...

3.3.3

hmmm....they supplied you with multiple sets of belts? are snapping one specific belt if so, which one?

DavidR

I've had the pulley kit on for 50k miles or so, with 0 problems. Even spinning up to 9k, no problems. Like it was mentioned, belt tension is important. Too tight and it'll wear the belt, main bearing (#1), and bearing in the pump, and too loose you get squeaky belt, or your problem.

3.3.3

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DavidR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've had the pulley kit on for 50k miles or so, with 0 problems. Even spinning up to 9k, no problems. Like it was mentioned, belt tension is important. Too tight and it'll wear the belt, main bearing (#1), and bearing in the pump, and too loose you get squeaky belt, or your problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>

bingo, thats why i was curious as to which one was snapping...if its a specific one, tension might be the culprit.

EastonDLE

I'm spinning the motor at 9600 rpms and the tension is fine. They supplied me with one belt, but I had to keep getting replacements...

EKCivicR

Go UNORTHODOX! But yeah.. strange.. we had AEM pulleys before and never had that problem.

racekar

never had problem withaem pulleys either

EastonDLE

yeah...i don't know anymore...I was trying to keep hope alive by sticking with AEM, but after 4 times its kind of hard to you know...

bushfreakz

ive had aem power pulleys for several years now.. no probs...
my sisters accord is stock and it snapped like 4 alt belts on a new alt. suddenly stopped doing it.. tension was set properly each time..

so maybe bad batch of belts...

i believe the last belt put on was like $9 instead of like $6 or something

bushfreakz

id go under the hood and there would be all this black fluffy material that i assumed was the belt cause i could never find it...

EastonDLE

i can understand like one belt being bad...maybe even two if i used my imagination, but to go through so many...its hard to believe i kept getting crappy belt. The engine was professionally built and assembled, so I know its not the installation process. just crappy product.

non

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by shaundrake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Their cam pulleys used to suck, but they've been revised so I don't know if they still suck. Their intakes suck. Their brake kits suck. I haven't seen their other crap but I've heard bad things about some of it. I like the EMS though although that's a whole other part of AEM altogether.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you make better brakes

you make better intakes

you make anything other than your mouth run like the nile river

AEM's pulleys used to slip occasionally due to user error it tightening the bolts, they have since redesigned the fasteners to make them more fool proof

There intakes are still among the best if not the best as proven in many tests

There brake kits are good for the kinds of people that buy them though work well on track as well