New to this forum and hope I can get some advice. My sons Berlina has developed knocking sounds and an oil leak when engine running, these are located behind the harmonic balancer. The car would shudder and shut down and became hard to crank, needing a jump start to get it home. Have read a bit about crank angle sensors etc but the oil leak adds a sinister element. Any ideas? I feel a hit on the wallet bigtime if I take it to mechanic and hope I can look at it at home. Looking forward to any advice Thanks.
The harmonic balancer might be stuffed ,it could be causing the knocking sound you mention.Id have a good look at it with the engine running,see if it wobbles at all,and also inspect it closely for any movement ,or cracked rubber etc.(inspect it for movement with the serpentine belt removed).Lever it back and forth with a screwdriver,if theres any movement in the balancer,replace it.If the balancer is wobbly or otherwise buggered,it could cause the front oil seal to leak.The front seal is behind the balancer and is cheap to buy,and easily replaced.You will need a harmonic balancer puller tool to remove the balancer..You will need the 3 bolt type puller,they are available cheap from places like supercheap etc.You also need 3 bolts about 2-3 inches long with a thread size and type 1/4 UNF.Some puller kits come with bolts,but the ones I got with mine were the wrong thread type and didnt screw into the balancer,so I went and bought them for a couple of dollars from a hardware place.These will screw into the slots around the balancer so it can be pulled of with the puller.Dont use the 3 leg type puller,this type of puller ,pulls on the outside of the balancer,and can wreck the balancer by seperating the 2 metal parts of the balancer.Theres also the CAS (Crank Angle Sensor) in behind the balancer.If this gets damaged by a stuffed or wobbly balancer,it will cause the car to stall or run bad..
Did the check as well and 12 was all that flashed up. I will replace CAS anyway since I am going to remove Balancer later today. Thanks for the post
welcome to j/c also if you run into probs you cant handle? send me a mssg and ill give you a number to a very very good holden mech(cheap as well) who is about 10 minutes from you
