this happened a few weeks ago, but i wanted to ask. Has anyone else had their idler pulley break in half? Its made of plastic and one day the car just made a horrible noise that sounded like a belt noise. stopped car looked over the engine and found the pulley snapped in half to where the front part got lodged into the bracket and broke the piece that attached the tensioner bolt and the back half got wedged into the timing belt cover. So the belt was just sliding across it. Ill take some pics of it later.

 

that's a first for me...mine are still steel.