Morning all. After reading another thread about a fluttery noise it reminded me of my own current slight worry about my engine. When it's idling or decelerating under compression, there's a quiet high pitched chirping kind of noise - It only happens at these times and is fine when accelerating. I've had a cam belt change recently and I can't honestly remember whether it happened before that. Would a too-tight belt explain this - even with it only happening sometimes?
The garage changed my fan and power steering belts at the same time and the fan belt squeals during acceleration when I set off from cold - and curiously it seems to be worse when I have the blowers on. I took that back to get it adjusted and they said the belt needed a little adjustment (standard thing) after a certain number of miles and that they'd done it, but if anything it was worse. They did say it was self adjusting so will it just go away if I leave it? It seems to have improved but I'm worried that excessive slipping might damage the new belt prematurely.
Any help much appreciated.
|
Sounds like the metal EGR valve working, they kind of 'chirp'
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
|
|
|
I\'ve had a cam belt change recently, Would a too-tight belt explain this - even with it only happening sometimes?
No. Too tight a cambelt will make a humming noise, too loose and it will rattle / chatter.
The garage changed my fan and power steering belts at the same time....
It\'s more than likely to be one or both those belts making the noise. Either spray with wd-40, or sprinkle some talcum powder on the belts - if the noise disappears, then that\'s where it\'s coming from. There is some proper spray available for belts to help make them more sticky, but not sure of the trade name for it.
|
For belt noise, I use a blob of lithium grease and apply it evenly to a section of the belt, when the engine starts it gets distributed around the pullies etc. I found WD40 didn't last very long.
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
|
|
I'm glad somebody else does that too. We've had to do that on one of ours because nothing else would silence it ;)
|
|
|
|
|
MY BMW 318 1 suffered from a chirping noise on acceleration it was traced to a plastic component with two flaps that sits on top or near the manifold. I think it was part of the air filter assembly....
|
|
oh an by the way the dealer tried spraying all the belts ...but this failed...
|
|
|
|
Some of you may have seen my previous posts mentioning fluttery noises and squealing belts, on my 1997 Astra 1.7 TD LS Van but one last question remains.
The belt (the dealer called it a fan belt but I *think* it must be the alternator drive belt) still (several weeks after installation) squeals upon acceleration in low gears (usually) and when decelerating under compression after changing down to (say) second gear. Sometimes it does it a lot for most of a journey, sometimes (like this morning for example) there's barely a peep out of it.
And that fluttery noise is still there too, but now I can't remember if that has happened since I bought the van. Anyway.
One weird thing I've noticed is that the squealing seems to be directly related to the blowers. If I'm driving along after it stops squealing, I can make it start to happen again by turning the blowers on full, and stop it by turning them off. Lower blower settings don't seem to affect it nearly as much if at all. Could it be that the squeal is an indicator of a deeper problem with the alternator for instance? Or should I just take it back to the Vauxhall Dealer who fitted the belt and get them to adjust it again? I'm loathe to do this as last time they adjusted it it became worse than before, and I'm sure I heard somewhere that these belts are meant to be self adjusting, although the haynes manual seems to contradict that.
Any advice or opinions will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
-- Kev
|
|
Sounds like the belt wot goes round the alternator. If you increase the electrical load and it squeels then thats the culprit. Fav for this is Heated rear window. A heated rear window pulls about 350 watts
|
So is there anything I need to do about it? Will making the belt more sticky (with WD40/Lithium Grease/Whatever) cure the symptoms and I can forget about the problem, or is my alternator at fault?
I'd hate to just mask a problem with grease then have to fix something expensive later when it fails.
One more question that just occurred to me - the belt in question is of the toothed variety - how can it slip in the first place?
-- Kev
|
|
The alternator belt is NOT toothed. Its too loose.
|
|
|
Is this not what they call a 'Poly-V Groove' belt, the 'teeth' are parallel to the way the belt rotates unlike a timing belt?
Is it not the case that if the previous belt had been squealing (and slipping) for a while it has polished the surfaces of the pulleys smooth so that even a new belt can't grip properly? The solution would be new pulleys. I think most Vauxhall's under ten years old have self tensioning 'fan' belts.
"Will making the belt more sticky (with WD40/Lithium Grease/Whatever) cure the symptoms" - Don't do this, these are lubricants which will make the belt slip more and possibly rot it too!
|
It was a V-section belt but I can only easily see the back of the new one so I can\'t verify the toothedness or not of it.
Is there anything I can use to make the belt more sticky? Or is a new set of pulleys the way forward? Are these hard to fit? And do you mean the one on the end of the alternator as one of them?
Is there an easy way to gauge whether the belt is correctly tensioned short of having the correct tool (which presumably the vauxhall garage must have used both during fitting and later adjustment?)
Thanks for all the answers so far.
-- Kev
|
Is the belt fairly flat and about an inch wide? If so, you should be able to feel the underside of it and feel the ridges. If its like the one I had in a '94 1.6 petrol Astra it will be self tensioning with a spring loaded tensioner, it will also run round the power steering pump too if you have power steering. If you put a 17mm spanner (?) on the bolt in the centre of the tensioner you can use the spanner to rotate the bolt against the spring so you can slip the belt off the pulleys.
I think the proper way to fix this is to replace all the pulleys, although maybe it's only the alternator one causing the squeal as it is much smaller than the the crankshaft and power steering pulleys so won't have anywhere near the same contact area with the belt. You could try slipping the belt off the alternator pulley and roughening up the pulley with some emery cloth.
|
OK. Latest episode in the saga.
I went to the VX dealer this morning and the bloke had a listen, and said it was either the alternator pulley as I'd suggested, or the alternator bearings. I don't think it can be the bearings as surely that would happen every time the engine hit a given speed with a given electrical load and not intermittently as it does(?)
At first he said they couldn't get the pulley on its own and would have to replace the entire alternator at a cost of £200 plus. After looking on the computer he found that they CAN get the pulley, but the labour costs would be similar to an alternator replacement (with a cheaper part obviously) as they would have to take the alternator off the car. Notably the bloke who said that was the guy from the desk, not a mechanic.
Is it really the case that you'd have to remove the alternator from the car to remove and replace a pulley and its retaining nut? If not then I'd be tempted to have a go at it myself. Or is it time to cut my losses and get a recon alternator fitted?
Incidentally I'd be interested in what those of you in the trade and in the know would charge for removal and replacement of an alternator, and just for the pulley, in a vehicle such as mine. Their labour costs are evil (£60/h) and they reckon it would take minimum 1h, maximum 1.5 hrs to do the job.
Thanks again for all the help so far. It's potentially saving me serious money.
-- Kev
|
Anyone? I don't fancy squealing around town all winter :¬D
Thanks in advance.
-- Kev
|
Re: the blower fan link to the squealing noise. I had the same puzzling and iritatating suspect fan belt noise.
I discovered that it was a worn blower fan bearing.
But it only happened on setting 3 when cornering and after the car was quite warm.
Hence the randomness of the noise.
This combination of heat, fan speed and tilt caused the fan to squeal.To prove it, next time you hear it turn the fan off imediately and you will hear it wind down as any squeeky fan does.Difficut to do when cornering though.
All other settings are fine so when it does happen I just move the fan setting to 2 or 4 until the car is cold.
In conjunction as previously mentioned I also had a loose fan belt.Hence the total confusion.
The belt was replaced and I had to re tighten it twice in 3 months.
It may be a co-incidence but after a cam belt change it became less of a problem
|
I thought I'd updated this 'saga' but it seems not so here goes.
I bought the new pulley and nut, and took them to a different VX dealership, where my sister has a mate who was willing to do it as a foreigner. He immediately spotted something that the other dealer had missed - The alternator bracket had at some point been removed or adjusted and one of the securing bolts (into the cylinder head) had broken. At this point, whichever cowboy had adjusted it decided that *welding* a steel bracket to an aluminium cylinder head was a good idea. Sure enough, the weld had broken, the alternator bracket had loosened and slipped downwards, and the alternator drive belt had come loose. Apparently fixing it is a head-off or even new head job so we're talking serious money. The other alternative is to make or find another bracket which will attach in place of the existing one, but extend to also attach to the thermostat retaining bolt.
Two adjustments of the alternator later, it's at the limit of it's adjustment (the slot in the bracket) so next time it starts squealing I'll just have to do the above change - unless anyone has any comments or better ideas.
Cheers
-- Kev
|
Oh and the fluttery noise has gone away as well - I can only assume that was a precursor to a full squeal.
-- Kev
|
|
|
|
