406oc.co.uk

I think the crankshaft pulley on my 2.0HDi is faulty due to the noise coming from that area...if I take the drive belt off would I be able to feel any play in the pulley?

You normally see rust or small flakes of metal coating the surfaces near the pulley. Take the wheelarch liner off and have a butchers. If you CAREFULLY watch while it's idling you'll probably be able to tell if that's your problem.

The internal rubber lump that transmits the drive from inner to outer metal component usually fails, allowing increased relative movement, until eventually the outer bit is no longer driven. Makes a horrendous racket / mess before you get that far, normalement

I replaced the pulley yesterday and it took about an hour to do. The pulley looked ok but if I dropped it onto hard ground I could hear it rattle. The replacement was £65 from Europarts. This pulley had been going for some time and many of the noises which have now gone made me think other parts where also faulty. One thing which may help diagnose the fault….run the engine on tick over and apply full lock on the steering. The load on the drive belt takes up the slack and the pulley goes a little quieter….that was the case for me.

Well done. You've potentially saved yourself far more serious problems by dealing with it promptly.

One more thing worth a mention….I had been aware of a slight vibration coming from the engine…almost like a slight misfire…this has also gone now.