so the shop calls me and says i need a harmonic balancer... the thing is over 400 bucks just for the part... im second guessing myself... should i get it!!??? damnit.... ill prolly just get it....

 

and how important do you think a harmonic balancer is?????

 

It balances the crankshaft...just how important do you think that is?

 

lol so dont be stupid and just get it huh??? lol

 

I got an underdrive pulley for a lower cost. It did have a small improvement of performance but primarily when te AC is on when you notice it the most. If i could do it over i would have got a performance harmonic balancer as i think my underdrive pulley made the rest of the accesories deteriorate faster then normal. You do get more power but it aint worth it. BTW i still have it on( 2 years) and everything is working correctly

 

for $400 , it better be a Titan Motorsports one. Seriously and its far superior than the OEm one.
If you can, locate a used OEm one which you can buy for 50 - 100 dollars.

Also do not spend money on the Underdrive crank dampners that you can buy all over for cheap or with pulley sets. Your crank will not like it in the future due to not being properly balanced.

 

I second this, please don't buy the advertised light weight performance ones, you'll just end up killing your motor.

 

get one form Jaymarks toyota form Jeff watson I just called him i needed one for my mk4.. it' was 250$ form toyota!

 

I spent $400 with a new balancer install timing belt, installed.

 

How do you know when your balancer is going bad?

 

well on my mk4 i heard this nasty screech, I didn't know what it was until i did the timing belt and the front part of the pulley piece fell off.

the rubber usually rots and the pulley piece gives. On my other crank I had a spider crack all the way up the harmonic balancer

 

You def want to listen to everybody. Those cheap underdrive crankshaft pulleys are bad for the motor.

After I put a hard 10k miles on my GS3 the original pulley broke (btw it made that screeching sound like zazzn said) so I installed an ebay underdrive crank pulley. Two weeks later I was doing some donuts, which I've done plenty of times before (I know, foolish), and on the way to my girlfriend's house the car started making a knocking sound like I spun a connecting rod bearing then it got so bad it cut off while I was on the side of the highway. Now I need to get a new motor. Lesson learned!

I know the donuts probably made it worse by g-forces pulling the oil to the side of the motor and off of the crank but as added insurance I'm not doing another cheap crank pulley/harmonic balancer.