Diagnosis required

[Paul In Ireland]

Of late, the generator light comes on sometimes when I drive the ute - sometimes the regulator gets a bit hot and I thought I may be developing prolems. I hadn't realised until this week the many different brightnesses that the little red light can achieve or the flashing patterns that it is capable of. I was driving the ute to work all week and it would be 80km round trip daily. Mechanically no problems as the ute is pretty sharp.

Anyway, tonight was most interesting as I started to hear a loud noise from the engine bay. I stoppped and had a look. There is a sound that could be best described as an old fashioned fire alrm bell going off but you put your hand on the bell to stop the ringing noise but you still here the hammer going hell for leather. The sound is either coming from the alternator or fan or somewhere in the front of the engine.

Can anybody hazard a guess as to what I am facing or what I can look for?



Thanks,

Paul
8)

[FC427]

Paul drop the fan belt of and turn the water pump and generator by hand if the noise is as bad as you say you will soon feel the problem, if they feel good and not noisy or grindie, start the engine with out the fan belt and see if the noise is there you can safely run the engine with out the water pump for a couple of minutes, if the noise is gone when you start the engine it has to be the water pump or the generator ........FC427........

[ridgey_didge]

Or it could be a uniquely Irish problem - have you checked for any of the little people under the bonnet?  ;)

David

[FE_STD_WAGON]

Hi Paul,

If the water pump and generator feel smooth it will more than likely be a loose harmonic balancer pulley
The grey motor harmonic balancer consists of 5 parts, that are all riveted together ,2 of these parts are rubber insulators and they deteriorate over time and from oil getting on them from the timing case seal and the the metal part start coming loose hence you noise. Hope this helps

Regards Mick

[FEHOLDEN]

gidday Paul

Not 100% sure about grey but red water pump baring has a distinctly "fire bell like" sound to it when it is about to go. Try checking as per FC427 and see how this goes.

HTH


Denis