If you look down at the balancer when bad you'll probably be able to see a crack in the rubber face. This won't hurt the driveability of the car, only annoy you to death with noise.

How many miles on the car?

When going to Napa..if you have or know anyone with an AAA card..bring it with you and present it before they ring you up. I've found Napa to give 5-10% discounts with it.

BTW.. SSE'* typically didn't come supercharged,on the SSEi it was standard. When you add the year and model to your signature under profile, please make sure and note that it is SC'd if it'* an SSE and not an SSEi. That will help a lot when posting questions/problems.

The balancer (also known as the crank pulley) will not just pull off when you get the bolt off. It requires a special harmonic balancer puller and 70 to 90 mm long M6x1 bolts.

All said above is correct. I just did mine harmonic balancer @ 120k miles mark. Seems to pretty common problem for a car with that mileage. Before I got hands on the right part I was driving around for atleast 3 weeks so no problem there at all other than emberasment with a loud noise at the stops. I got mine HB from rockauto.com for just $110 US. Dealer quoted me $250 CDN for same part (Dorman). Make sure you order one for supercharged engine. Local store guy screwed up and got me non-supercharged at first I was so mad since it was special order and I had to wait a week just to find out that it is a wrong part! Then make yourself a favour, rent a HB removal tool, makes it a lot easier. For some reason (my mistake or rockauto.com fault) I received a part for 93 when mine is 92. Didnt noticed a difference when installed but the car would not start! Removed HB once again, compared a parts and sure they are different. First the distance between grooved rings is larger thus one of the notched rings ended up outside of the crank sensor. I was lucky I didnt damaged sensor. Then nothces themself a different in size so and the distance between them. I had to swap the rings from old HB to a new one. That was a nightmare by itself since the old bolts holding those rings were completely stripped. Welding a 6 mm nut to each bolt then carefully unscrewing it did the job, but it was some precision welding involved. Glad I was doing it in a brother'* hydraulic shop with all the tools available. Not a sidewalk job I'll tell you. Took me 4 hours total when its actually 1-1.5 hour job. After that car started right up.

This baby only has 74,000 miles on it, and runs like a champ.

okay I know I am being a pain in the arse, but what should I tell the people at the parts store when I ask for the special harmonic balancer puller? the guy told me they have it but I want to make sure it is the right one before I go and pay to rent it.

Make sure that the puller they have has these bolts with it.

Any harmonic balancer puller should work. The bolts that you need will 99% never be in any kit. They are ridiculously small. I found them in a parts bin at Napa. Cheap..easy and work like a charm.

yes, and most of the pullers dont come with them. But you can get these bolts in any hardware store for less than a $1

By "special", I meant it'* not a normal pulley puller, it'* a harmonic balancer pulley puller.

oh okay lol I feel better now, I called and they are gonna rent me one and they claim it comes with the right bolts....

THanks sooo much everyone