Rattling pulley ?

[taylormj4]

I have a kind-of rattling noise coming from the serpentine belt area when the engine is running. Hard to tell exactly where it's coming from. Are likely suspects, the bearings for the alternator pulley, the tensioner pulley and the steering pump pulley. Belt is in very good condition.

Anyone had this or suggest a way to fault find ?
Remove belt and try to manually spin up the three components ?

Cheers.

[TVR Beaver]

If you run the engine (for a short time) with the belt off... is the noise still there?

[Chilliman]

Was about to suggest a length of hose or screwdriver to listen in each area but then thought perhaps silly idea with the belt going round...

[deeen]

The crank pulley came off on mine, might be worth a check...

[locodude]

I had the idler pulley fail on mine, the bearing collapsed. New bearing fitted from a local bearing supplier cost about £30 I seem to remember, could be that.

[450Nick]

My bet is the belt tensioner, take it off and lubricate the swivel mechanism. Had it on mine and it was bloody annoying!

[FlipFlopGriff]

Water pump maybe? What happens if you increase the revs?
FFG

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

When I had that noise it turned out to be the belt itself.

[Simon says]

spend said:

lip the belt off (only a 2 min job) and prise / wiggle / spin all the pulleys - it's surprising what you can feel with your own diagnostic senses - they haven't made a tool or robot to better us in that sense yet

Carefully check the belt alignment with a straight edge whilst you're at it, some seem to have quite bad alignment for reasons I've never figured out.

^ What he said combined with Alex's helpful video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfIg2afMts8 One thing i will highlight is that once you have refitted the belt and released the tensioner it is imperative you may sure the belt is laying in the pulleys aligned correctly, it is easy for the belt to jump one tooth over on the crank pulley for example before you release that tensioner the car will run for a while like this before shredding the belt (I have seen this so many times with Serp drive's) run the car quick after refitting to double check this lot should see you right

Edited by Simon says on Thursday 2nd February 09:56

[taylormj4]

Thanks for the comments. To answer one question: the rattle frequency does increase with revs, as you would suspect.

The belt removal vid is excellent, thanks. Wil try that and Spends spin up of pulleys over the weekend.
Where did Spend's post go in this topic, it seems to have disappeared ?

Edited by taylormj4 on Thursday 2nd February 12:49

[taylormj4]

Ok so it's the belt tensioner. Gotten a lot louder this week.
The rattle/squeak disappears over 1500rpm. Presume this is because the belt becomes more taught and the tensioner doesn't move around so much ?

Anyhow, is the tensioner DIYer serviceable or am I looking at a new one?
Locodude had the bearing replaced for £30. Where did you go for that please ?

As usual there are two groups of parts: TVRpower/ClevTrev/Racetech at around £42+del and then Britpart (fall apart soon) types at around £28.

Matt

[Colin L]

Try local Range Rover place its a standard part will save you postal costs and time.
Five minute job to change
Colin L