engine noise - pulleys or bearing noise

[johnmccracken]

Hi,

54 plate 1.9TDi.

I have a noise coming from the front of the engine which i suspect is coming from one of the lower pulleys. It is thereat low revs upto 1500 rpm and is particularly noticeable as the engine begins to take load. it is also aggravated if I turn the steering wheel whist moving off. What is the most likely source of the noise and should I worry about getting it fixed ?

Thanks

[nevo]

It could be a few things,water pump bearing,idler roller(on the cam belt)but firstly check the alternator pulley one way clutch,get someone to hold the revs at 1500 and observe the aux drive belt tensioner see if its jumping all over the place,or with the engine off get a piece of wood about pencil size and put it through the alt opening in the front and see if it free wheels one way (from recallection I think its anti clockwise).

[A4 ERIE]

Hi,

It sounds like it is your aircon pulley. Down low on the passenger side of the front of the engine. check to see if you an move it with your hand. A comin problem.

[danclyon]

It could be a few things,water pump bearing,idler roller(on the cam belt)but firstly check the alternator pulley one way clutch,get someone to hold the revs at 1500 and observe the aux drive belt tensioner see if its jumping all over the place,or with the engine off get a piece of wood about pencil size and put it through the alt opening in the front and see if it free wheels one way (from recallection I think its anti clockwise).

I'm with Nevo, be very surprised if it's not the alternator pulley.......about £190 done at the main dealer. If you want a laugh, ask to watch them do it and see how far off they are on the labour estimate. They told me "about an hour" and it took them 2.5 ;-)

[frankc]

Most importantly don't leave it too long before sorting it, as Crasher pointed out in the B5 forum - a snapped aux belt can take the timing belt out.

Frank

[rhencullen1989]

Hi, just done mine today, bought a genuine alternator pulley from TPS which was £88.00, removed the alternator from the car and a mate of mine had the special tools to remove the old pulley and replace with the new one.

the old one was seized solid and causing a clunk noise on start up and a rumbling noise when pulling away on low revs, also the alternator tensioner was wobbling around a lot. Quite an easy job to do as long as you have the right tooling. By the wat, the pulley is very tight and we needed a breaker bar to get enough leverage to undo it.

[vwcabriolet1971]

The genuine INA clutch/pulley assembly I bought for a 140A 1.9TDI Alternator for a MK5 Golf was only about £20 from GFS ( about 4 months ago).

[rhencullen1989]

God that sounds cheap, mine was a genuine Audi part, Part number S 06B 903 119D (the "S" means the part has been superseeded) it was also made by INA. Proves how much audi are making i suppose, i did see some cheap ones on the bay but the quality is probably poor. As i did the job myself and hence no labour costs i don't mind buying genuine parts as there is a 2 year guarantee and i also have a trade account with TPS. Perhaps i should have done some more homework, although i did post on here where the best place to buy one from was and no one replied, so for piece of mind i bought genuine from audi. At least i know its a quality item that should last as long as the original one did (although that was only 79K).

[vwcabriolet1971]

Maybe the Audi part is different. I did check the INA bearing/pulley P/No.(not VW P/No.) on a genuine VW part ( about £50) and then found that the GFS was exactly the same.

[arman123]

I've got a slight rattle coming from the engine at idle but soon as I put the aircon on it goes any one had this problem was reading it could be the air con pulley bolt loose