Shackleton Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Feel like an idiot. Did the (false) economy thing and replaced my crank pulley with a Britpart item. The clatter of a two piece pulley that was actually in two pieces has gone thankfully but that squeak that everyone equates to a pulley that's on the way out is still there... except... It's worse. Way worse. And gets even WORSTER when turning the steering. After a denial phase of about two days, wishing I'd bought a genuine pulley, I finally dragged up enough motivation to properly check out the problem. Here's the thing, the squeak is the spring in the belt tensioner, not the crank pulley. I can only talk from my case but I'd be confident that it's the case for this problem across the boards. It makes more sense than the failing rubber in the pulley. Surely if the rubber bond had gotten weak enough to squeak it would only last a few hundred revolutions before it totally separated? Anyway, I took the fan and belt off to see whether the noise remained and of course it didn't. After re-assembly I realised that my tensioner was vibrating like crazy. I assumed it was the bearings being dry and hot creating drag, by they turned out to be silky smooth (this tensioner is less than a year old, belt was replaced at the same time too). I got under the car while it was running and helped the tensioner by pressing it a little harder against the belt and hey presto the noise went. Thing is if the tensioner is being bounced off the belt, by the belt, then that means this poxy Britpart crank pulley doesn't spin true right? Has anyone else had this experience or had reason to believe their pulley wasn't balanced? Oh and one other thing, there's a great bit on replacing your crank pulley here: http://www.discovery...rankPulley.html - He mentions that the OEM pulley's don't have an offset hole for the vibration damper bolts, mine most definitely did. Would only go on one way. There went any chance that I'd unbalanced the pulley by putting the damper back on wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shackleton Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 Td5 owners... I found the problem that was causing my tensioner to give that start up/shut off squeak. Bad news for me is I could possibly have gotten thousands more miles out of my old crank pulley. Good news is that my new Britpart pulley is fine. It's a cause I hadn't heard anywhere else and could save others money and time. My viscous fan had given up and seized. It seized off centre. It was off balance enough to put a wobble in the pulley belt. Figured it out while flushing the coolant today. It struck me how smooth the engine seemed to be running and when I examined the various pulleys/belt I noticed the tensioner wasn't vibrating at all. Only difference was the lack of fan. Threw it back on and hey presto, noise from the tensioner and a big vibration. Check that viscous fan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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