Engine rattle (vid included)

[DaveDreads]

The dog kennel has developed some kind of metallic rattle,
it sounds like it's some kind of washer or gasket's loose and it's coming from around the belts or cam cover.

I have no idea what it could be and the engine doesn't sound like a black cab that much,
so I thinking it's not the dephaser, I may be wrong though.

Here's the vid, it's not the best as the engine is louder than the rattle,
but hopefully you can hear it.

http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/...on=view&current=video-2012-09-11-15-57-05.mp4

Any ideas?

 

[Rob]

Alternator bracket?

I had a very similar sound in my ph1 for the whole first year, turned out the alternator bracket only had one bolt it and was loose on t'other side.

 

[DaveDreads]

That's one possibility, it definitely sounds like something's loose rather than broken.

 

[Rob]

Front of the engine, beneath the fuel rail guard, (it could even be fuel rail guard and that a bolt/stud has snapped), there's a bar going diagonally, it looks like a support, check it's not loose.

And whilst you're there, check the fuel rail guard.

 

[DaveDreads]

Ok nice one mate, i'll stick my head under the bonnet and see what I can find.

 

[Cookson]

Sounds like a rough idler to me

 

[Dan519]

aux belt idler, i'd say

 

[DaveDreads]

Well all the belts are due for change as it's been 5 years,
only problem is i'm having a really hard time trying to save for it,
as soon as I get a few hundred quid together, something comes up and life drains it away. :dapprove:

I know if the aux belt snaps it can take the cam belt with it,
so the basically game over for the engine.

Is the idler something that should be sorted instantly, or is it something that can be left for a bit?

 

[Dan519]

Lower aux idler is the prime culprit for shredding aux belts, which in turn will end up wrapped around your crank pulley, and giving you a nice bent set of valves

 

[DaveDreads]

Bugger! :dapprove:

 

[PP200t]

Dave def check your alternator bracket. I too had a rattle for a while and worried about belts/idlers/cams/etc but it was the bolt holding it to the block that was missing!

 

[lemonnobby]

Lower aux idler my 172 sounds like that

 

[MartinR]

My water pump sounded like that when it went

 

[DaveDreads]

Turns out it's the alternator bracket.

I got a mate to hold on to the thing while I blipped the throttle,
the rattle stopped instantly, it didn't feel loose initially but giving a hard wiggle moved it about loads.

I really quite happy because I was about to skint myself to rush an aux/cam belt service,
so if you ever get the same thing, check the cheap fixes first.

 

[Rob]

Oh s**t I'm good.