Squeeky pulleys & coolant question..

[Jim 2]

New morning, new problems.

 

Driving to work this morning, my car has developed a reeeallly annoying new noise from the engine bay. You can hear it at idle even in the car with all the windows up, and after I got to worked and popped the bonnet had a listen, and it appears to be coming from all the pulleys & belt area - a kind of rhythmic squeeking that goes in time with the belts moving, and increases as you rev the engine. Its more of an annoyance than anything else, but i'd like to be sure its not warning me of impending failure of something important.

 

Secondly.. whilst having a clean around in my engine bay, I couldn't help but notice crusty blue deposits of dried on coolant on the block, where the pipe runs into the side of the engine on the right hand side as you look at it from the front. Anything to worry about, or should I be getting this looked at pronto?

 

Thanks.

[PhatVR6 0]

your timing belt tensioner could be on it's way out.

[Jim 2]

Any idea how much a new one is mate? I could pick up one from VW and get Stealth to swap it when its in for a service next week?

[GazzaG60 0]

thoses squeaky type noises are common on the G60 . i dont think ive heard one that doesn't make a few noises from time to time. belt material can make these noises as can a charger tensioner pulley or cambelt as stated above. what ive found is that when i take the belt off the charger and put it back on silence happens for a few months.why???? not too sure.

 

as for the flanges. the 2 flanges on the head, one on front other on side are prone to leaking. its wortth replacing the full flange along with the o-rings, 1 to the engine on the flange and 2 to hold the swithces against. both my switch o-rings werew mush and it would seep from here when hot.

[h100vw 0]

I reckon it will be the charger/alternator drive belt. My Golf was the same. Genuine VW belts have some crosshatching on them that seems to stop squeaking. Aftermarket belts from GSF are usually smooth and sqeak big time. If you drop a couple of drops of water on the outside of it, it'll stop for a few seconds and then start again as the water evapourates.

 

The coolant leak is more of a worry. That flange can blow and leave you stranded. I would defo check your RAC/AA membership is up to date and have it replaced ASAP. The leak can also cause running problems if the earth wires get corroded. the subsequent bad earth affects the ECU etc.

 

Cheers

Gavin

[Tempest 0]

Jim: Got some time this Saturday? Could have a look at it (depending on what I'm doing with my Dad around then ...). PM me ...

 

Tempest

[Jim 2]

Eric - cheers for that. I'll PM you. Can see if its looking bad or not.

 

Does anyone know if swapping that part out is an expensive or time consuming job? As I said , I am taking my Corrado in for a service with Stealth on the 7th and I asked them as part of the service to do a coolant flush & replace. If thats getting done anyway, I could get them to do swap that flange out?

 

Starting to feel right back at home with Corrado ownership again!! :(

[randal 0]

I've got a similar thing on mine. As you look at the bay, on the pulley rigs on the left, the top most pulley squeels (like metal on metal) at start up, then disappears after 2 mins of driving. I've WD40'd it for now, but it's going to need replacing. Someone also said that this was the water pump? It looks like a tensioner to me, but without ma Haynes manual I'm stuffed.

[dames 0]

the squeak is a doddle to fix provided there are no under lying problems with tensioners etc. put some talcum powder on the inner ribbed surface of the charger belt. (remove the black plastic cover on the charger side of the engine) be very carefull if you do this with the engine running cos it will have your hand off if you get caught!!! the fix lasts for months as well. i think its because a slightly older belt gets polished with friction. alternatavely a new belt isnt too expensive, but its allways nice to get a cheap fix.

[Henny 0]

Randal? get hold of a Golf or Passat haynes with the KR 16V engine in it... it's exactly the same as the Corrado's one even down to the wiring colours in the engine bay.... 8)

 

Jim, the 2 flanges can be swapped in a few minutes each... the one on the side of the head is a little fiddly to do due to the metal water pipe being in the way, but it's not a difficult job to do, and if you're having a coolant flush, it's the perfect time to do it too! IIRC the 2 flanges come to less than £20 inc O rings, and I'd be VERY tempted to put in new blue and black sensors while you have it all apart too so that you know that they're not gonna go faulty in the near future... 8) If one flange is leaking, then the odds are that the other will start leaking as soon as you replace the first one as the O-ring will be in the same sort of condition as the one that's leaking and won't take the extra pressure.... :roll: Do 'em both now, and have done with it for another few years... 8)

 

Your squeek is most likely to be either the belt, or one of the tensioners... Get stealth to have a look at the state of the Cambelt tensioner as this is the one that will make lots of damage if it gives up and breaks the belt! :shock: It's dead easy to have a look at, and you can normally tell if it's dead or not just from looking and prodding at it! ;) I reckon that it's probably just the belt squeeking as Gav says though... 8)

[Supercharged 2]

Yeah, take the cambelt off and take a look Jim before you leave - Kevhaywire put some pictures up on here of my seized tensioner, very lucky to catch it in time!

 

Look for play in the tensioner bearings and if it runs off centre its shagged! also look at the belt for signs - shiny and cracked?

[Jim 2]

Henny,

 

I talked to Stealth and they are happy to do that as part of the service.. I don't spose you have part numbers for those do you? I don't wanna risk looking at EKTA and ordering the wrong thing!!

 

Supercharged,

 

I had a look into the pulleys and thought the belts looked in pretty good condition - certainly no signs of cracking or ageing... but then i'm not much of a mechanic. I'll try and get a picture so someone can advise me :)

[Henny 0]

I'll get ya the part numbers tonight when I get home... they're on an invoice in my pile of bits so I know they're the correct bits! ;) :lol: 8)

[Jim 2]

Top stuff. Cheers Henny :)

[stevemac 0]

put some talcum powder on the inner ribbed surface of the charger belt.

 

That's exactly what we used to do when I worked for Mercedes - very effective :wink:

 

In fact we used to sprinkle it all over the belt

[Henny 0]

my local merc garage has a tub (HUGE one at that!) of "Brut for Men" talc for exactly this reason... apparently they found it was the best at stopping the squeek?!? :? :lol:

[stevemac 0]

my local merc garage has a tub (HUGE one at that!) of "Brut for Men" talc for exactly this reason... apparently they found it was the best at stopping the squeek?!? :? :lol:

 

yeah "Brut for Men" is definitely the best - smells good too :lol: :lol:

 

On a more serious note - the talcum powder idea came from the Mercedes warranty department - kind of an "official" repair proceedure.

[Jim 2]

Squeak is still there as I drove up to my 'other' work site this evening.. its odd how its not happened at all, and as soon as the weather changed (ie from beild mild and dry yesterday to hammering it down last night and today) its started up.

 

Just to add to the problems, I also now appear to have water trickling in on the passenger side footwell right where the trim that comes down from the A pillar joins to the trim that runs along the inside of the door sill in the footwell.

 

Doesn't seem to happen when I wash the car, but does seem to trickle a little bit through when it hammers it down with rain. Go figure!!

[stevemac 0]

Go with the talc Jim - it was the weather which used to (&probably still does) cause the Merc problem too

[Jim 2]

Talcum on the charger belt? Okey doke!

[stevemac 0]

Talcum on the charger belt? Okey doke!

 

Not on the little internal charger belt

 

Put talc on the big belt which runs around the charger pulley, alternator pulley, crankshaft pulley, etc. Use plenty too - don't worry about it going all over the engine bay, it will soon disappear.

 

In fact, if you do this while the engine is idling, you'll literally hear the noise disappear. :wink:

[Jim 2]

Thanks very much for that.

 

Now I know what its like when I try and explain a technical solution to a user when they have problems with their computer.. I am the same way when you guys explain these mechanical problems.. but slowly I will learn :)

 

Thanks again Steve.