Steve:
> I reported in earlier posts that my belts on my '98 C5 were squeaking. I
> took it to a friend's shop and he found that the rubber in the harmonic
> balancer is all worn and wobbling. He said the belts are old and dry too.
> The job is going to cost $679 total, new belts and all. He said it's a 4
> hour job to get the harmonic balancer changed. Does that sound about right?
Seems about right. It's a rats nest of pipes, hoses, belts, and god
knows what in front of the LS1, and there's little to no room to get at
anything. All the accessories probably have to come off of the front of
the motor to access the harmonic balancer, and maybe even the radiator
and cooling hoses, can't really tell from the pictures I've found.
Regardless, there's a lot to be moved around just to get a hand down to
the area of interest.

>
> What gets me is that I just had the car at the dealer and they replaced two
> tensioners. They said it needed new belts to stop the squeaking. Why didn't
> they spot the bad harmonic balancer? Can I get away with not replacing it?
> What happens when one fails?
It's kind of hard to see from the top, maybe easier from the bottom.
It's not something that usually fails. Before I'd let them work on it
I'd check to see if there's any TSB's out on it.
To be quite honest, I smell a rat. I've owned quite a few cars over the
years (and most were GM, but not all...) and I've NEVER had a harmonic
balancer go bad.
Now, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen. It seems to be a common
failure on newer Mercedes (went surfing the NG's via Google). Didn't see
anything on LS1 HB's, so I doubt it a big failure item.
Get a second or third opinion.
What happens if it fails completely? As it wobbles it'll chew up the
front of the motor including timing chain cover & seal, as well as maybe
the lower pulley and serpentine belt. It could conceivably cause timing
chain problems and maybe even early crankshaft failure.

Good luck!
TomC
'90 ZR1 #792
>