simonds1

Hey guys, I know this kinda problem is pretty much impossible to diagnose on here but I thought I'd upload a video for people to have a look/listen to incase it's a common thing and someone says oh yeah, that's your....whatever gone. Yesterday morning I noticed this noise when I started the car, and then was there again thismorning. I can't really even tell where the noise is coming from exactly, and as usual with cameras, this video makes it sound quite a lot worse than real life! It only seems to happen at idle, any sort of revs and it seems to disappear. Any opinions as to what might be wrong would be great thankyou

QM14

That sounds like some form of belt to me? I couldn't tell you which one But I'm no expert.....

stedee

iTrader: (4)

sounds like some kind of pulley is on its way out, try spraying wd on the alternator pulley, ps pulley and aircon pulley if you have one, if the noise clears up its one of them , if not time to whip the cam covers off and have a look ,tbh you need to find out what it is very soon cos if it is cam or idler pulleys you could have a big problem

simonds1

Yeah it's definitely a pulley and not a belt I'd say - it sounds too metally to be a pulley. Okay I'll try the WD to try and see which one is causing the problem. Didn't think of that see, that's why I need you boys

leecalcars

iTrader: (37)

sounds to me like air con pulley !

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

Air con tensioner pulley

simonds1

Is that the one to the right of the alternator underneath the plastic shrouding bit?

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

No mate that's the air con pump pulley,the tensioner pulley is the small one just down between the alternator and air con pump

simonds1

Okay thanks mate If that does turn out to be the problem, is it something that's easy-ish to sort?

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

Very easy mate,just remove the bracket that holds the pulley[2 12mm headed bolts] and then change the pulley which is held on with a 14mm bolt

simonds1

I don't think anything's very easy when I'm involved lol. So I'm guessing it's under some kind of tension which would have to be released before it's changed? Is it possible to then re-tension it wrong and cause problems? Should I just give it to someone who knows what they're doing?

simonds1

Possible silly question alert coming up.......would the wd40 take a while to work its way in to stop the squeeling? I got home from work and tried spraying some on the aircon tensioner pulley while the car was running and it made absolutely no difference. I didn't spray on any others, I just turned the car off. Then when one of my mates got home from work who knows a bit about cars, I went to show him (this was about 10 mins later) and it wasn't squeeling at all. So could that've been the wd40 from earlier maybe? I dunno! I was kinda expecting an instant stopping of squeeling when I sprayed it on the pulley.

Myles

iTrader: (40)

Not sure on the above but the tensioner is easy to change. First you need to loosen the 12mm nut on the front of the wheel. Then the bolt that is on top needs to be screwed back to release the tension. Easy peasy. Then you need to undo the two 12mm bolts holding the tensioner assembly to remove the lot. I would remove the belt and run the engine with no aircon belt. You can then see if the noise has gone, you might have had the pulley under too much tension.

Hope that helps.