First signs of bottom pulley giving up the ghost?

[lofty]

Hi folks.

Ive done the search on bottom pulleys (hdi's) and read up on most of the symptoms of a failed one.... however how long do they last and whats the first signs of them failing?

My cars done 130k, and has at some point had a replacement pulley (it looks like an aftermarket non gen one). Do the aftermarket ones last 5 minutes compared to the genuine ones??

Anyway, my car has started to develop a noticable rattle when pulling away in the lower gears, under load its audiable but on very very light throttle you can pull away without it rattling.

Obviously when your at speed, its hard to detect the "additional" noise.

Are these symptoms indication of an impending pulley death? Ive looked all around the area and cant see any rusty dusty deposits (yet?)

Mind you, compared to an x reg 406 hdi GTX estate taxi i stood next to in Poole yesterday mine still sounds like a swiss watch - god almighty it was a rattly old knacker!!!!

Any tips guys? Im watching a genuine new pulley on the bay (from a main dealer) at less than £95, im assuming thats a good buy??

Matt

[Welly]

All I can offer is what happened to my (most likely the original) pulley.....

On cold starts there will be a distinct 'ticking' noise which will clear up during the day.

A brown-ish dust will be evident around the area of the pulley and perhaps even some shiney specks of metal.

The 'failure' comes on really quick i.e. over a day or two the noise will become horrific; a real loud smacking sound which rises and falls with revs you know instantly something is very wrong

I used mine for 1 further day to get it down to the garage but kept the revs very low at no more than 1500rpm. Once removed the old pulleys damping had shot it but wasn't really ready to separate out.

The genuine modified part has 3 damping 'slots' rather than the old 2-slotter.

[lofty]

Thanks for that Welly. I'll keep a close eye on it over the next few days.

Is it normal for the aftermarket ones to have a much shorter lifespan than the OE stuff?

[Welly]

Apparently the aftermarket ones are crap. I was advised to go to the dealer and to be fair it was spot on.

Found this for you too......http://forums.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction ... 73163.html

Also it appears that post 2002 HDi's left the factory with mofified pulleys because of the original ones failing etc.

[lofty]

Thats made my mind up, ive done 12k in the car since april this year and it had been on a few thousand before that i think, but its a cheap aftermarket one.

I'll go genuine with the next one.

Thanks for the link Welly.

[jasper5]

Genuine pulleys from the dealer are £80 plus vat....£92. (trade price)

[Welly]

I think mine was £128.00 at the time

[jasper5]

They are on special offer to trade club members at £80 plus vat, it seems some dealers are offering them at this price on ebay?

I don't know the retail price.

[mjb]

I got my V6 bottom pulley from ebay for about £15 delivered
Dunno about the diesels, but on the V6 the problem is the rubber dampener perishes and the symptoms are:

Squealing/whistling, especially at high revs
Alternator working intermittently
Poor aircon performance
Iffy power steering

Failure can be detected by getting some paint/tippex/chalk and drawing a line across the radius of the pulley. If the line's separated after driving a bit, it's obvious the pulley's failed

As I said, dunno if any of that applies to diesels...

[Welly]

The Diesel one moves by a set amount left/right but has 'stops' so it can't do part or full revolutions as such.

It's only there to stop vibration being transfered through the car.

[lofty]

New pulley has landed yesterday, invoice from the dealer says part number 515v6, but i cant see any number (or PSA markings) anywhere on the pulley.

Am i being paranoid about their being no matching number on the pulley?? The pulley is matt black with a silverish finish to the ribbed area.

pulley paranoia? LOL

[lofty]

changed the pulley this morning, no obvious visual drama on the old pulley BUT you could rotate the inner part inside the outer part by about 4mm with finger pressure, so it was obviously fooked!

Simple enough job, much easier than some jobs LOL

Went for road test, ive lost the real tappet like rattle under load so all is good again.

Just the squeaky DMF issue now....