Harmonic Balancer or Belt Tensioner?

[nabed4t]

Hello Lads,

Recently started hearing a knocking sound from the engine bay and after snooping around I found the sound was coming from the Belt Tensioner and the Tensioner is also bouncing around a bit at idle (putting my finger on the bolt I could also feel the rattle). I pulled off the Tensioner pulley and sure enough it was stuffed. Bought a new one and wacked it on, rattle is still there and the Tensioner is still bouncing.

After doing a bit of reading on JC I found some people pointing their fingers at the Harmonic Balancer that could cause this problem.

I'm just wondering how do I go about figuring out which one is the culprit before replacing something.

Thanks.

 

[IBLOWN]

If the balancer is running out alot it will cause the tensioner to load and unload. The noises the tensioner makes usually aren't the actual tensioner, its the other pulleys not having enough load on the bearings causing that squeek. Crappy bearings from factory. I replaced all my bearings with good quality (SKF) bearings. Never had a problem since.

 

[nabed4t]

Thanks for the reply, should have mentioned I have changed the 2 idler pulleys, the water pump and the tensioner pulley.

 

[franklinfrog]

Did you change only the pulley or the pulley and the tensioner arm together? The pulley could be fine but the actual arm could be stuffed? That's if they even come separate on the VT......never done this to a VT but the arm is what tensions the belt. Otherwise balancer.

 

[nabed4t]

Only changed the pulley (as the pulley was stuffed) but the problem was still there. The Tensioner arm is still tight as hell and takes a bit of force to move to get the belt off, I just don't want to go spending $$$ on something that isn't broken. Was hoping for some diagnostic magic to tell me what the problem causer is.

 

[ephect]

Sounds like U have 1 wrong sized pulley or the wrong sized belt. It shouldn't be that tight: there are 2 sizes of the ribbed pulley. If U have the larger one replace that and U should be ok. If it's the same size as the other idler pulleys get the larger belt.

 

[nabed4t]

I meant the arm spring is tight not the belt. When the belt is on there is about 1cm-1.5cm of slack.

 

[IBLOWN]

The spring tension on the arm doesnt take much to have an effect on making the pulleys noisy. You cant really feel if it does or doesn't have enough tension. I test them bu putting a 15mm spanner on the pulley and lifting it up slightly to see of the noise stops.

 

[nabed4t]

Thanks IBLOWN, will give it a go. I've had ongoing problems with squeaking from the engine bay, I noticed today that turning the AC on seems to lessen the squeak...
The belt it relativity new and in good condition.

 

[Pumba83]

Get a long screw driver and place the head of it on each pulley bolt then put your ear to the handle of the screw driver like a stethoscope it will help u decifer where the noise is coming from (while car is running ) be carefully not to touch the belt with it though or it'll go flying