Is this a pulley problem.

[patclan]

I have Defender Puma 2010 and a very loud whining noise coming from the engine.

The noise level is rev related, it happens hot or cold and in neutral sitting in my driveway.

I had a split in my intercooler which I have fixed with a temp intercooler to see if that was causing the noise. I also changed all the intercooler hoses and checked the turbo and exhaust manifold for soot leakage or signs of it coming from there and it does not appear to be.

I initially ruled out the serpentine belt as I had it replaced around 10000k ago but after running out of theories I checked again, first thing I noticed is the belt does not line up with the paint wear on the top left hand pulley (#3 in the diagram), I thought this was strange so checked to make sure the belt was on properly and it looks like it is, it seems to be fitted into all the other grooved wheels/pulleys fine. I released the tension on the belt and I found that one of the pulleys had a bit of up/down movement (#9), a few mm each way (if that).

So my question is should these pulleys have any movement? And if it does could that cause the alignment of the belt to be off and also the whining noise I get.

Land Rover dealer does not have the part in stock and it could take 1 to 2 days to come up from Melbourne, so I decided to book my car in to Ricks on the gold coast to check it out next week, I have been hunting this down for weeks and with the other issues and fixes I have tried I am a bit tired of getting the tools out and just want it fixed.

My worry is I replace the pulley and I still have the noise then I will be really peeved so this way it should come back without the noise one way or another. But if it was just the pulley I will be really annoyed at my lack of commitment.

So can Pulleys cause a whine? :D
cheers
Pat

[bee utey]

A pulley with a stuffed bearing will make a loud whirring noise. The best way to tell is to take off the serpentine belt and spin the pulleys by hand. Any stuffed bearing will feel and sound rough even by hand. A misaligned pulley on the other hand will make a chirpy noise that can be temporarily alleviated by dribbling water over the belt with the engine running.

[patclan]

A pulley with a stuffed bearing will make a loud whirring noise. The best way to tell is to take off the serpentine belt and spin the pulleys by hand. Any stuffed bearing will feel and sound rough even by hand. A misaligned pulley on the other hand will make a chirpy noise that can be temporarily alleviated by dribbling water over the belt with the engine running.

Thanks for that, I just quickly pulled the belt of the pulley and gave it a spin and I can hear the bearings clicking, not sure if that is the best way to describe it but definitely makes a noise, I tried the other pulley and it is silent and does not spin as freely.

Now I am annoyed I didn't order the part, I could have had it fixed over the weekend and saved some money, oh well :) at least I can save them some fault finding time on Monday.

Thanks for your help.
Pat.

[patclan]

Ok couldn't not do it, I have cancelled the garage and ordered the pulley, hopefully next week I will have gotten rid of the noise or the search continues..

[DazzaTD5]

Remove the serpentine belt and then start the engine, if the sound has gone, it will at least confirm that its related to the front end as you suspect.

pulleys, alternator etc

Regards
Daz

[patclan]

I will give that a go thanks.

[4wheeler]

Hi Pat,
While you are checking pulleys, make sure the crankshaft pulley is sound. I had one deteriorate on my 2.4 Transit which caused strange noises which I felt sure were coming from the top of the engine. This problem was also not diagnosed by my local Ford dealer. I am making the assumption that the 2.4 Defender engine crankshaft pulley is similar to the Transit. My 2.2 Defender pulley is of similar design to the Transit although not identical.

What I found in my case was that the rubber bonding between the outer section and inner section of the pulley was failing causing the two parts to contact each other. In this case it produced an intermittent knocking noise which was more noticeable at lower revs and improved at higher revs . It would come and go randomly and drove me mad! This I also noticed made the belt run out of line as the tension on the belt would pull the outer section of the pulley inwards.

While this might not be the cause of your noise, it would be worth checking the pulley just in case as it is not immediately apparent (to me) that the pulley is a bonded unit. The pulley section where the belt runs should only show slight movement when a lever is applied. If it moves a fair amount then this could be failing. If it lets go it will cause major damage including probable damage to the radiator.

When I replaced the pulley (not cheap), the difference in noise level was immediate and solved my problem. The Transit pulley lasted probably 120,000 Km before deciding it was taking its bat and ball and going home in a huff. The pulley was totally shot although this was not visually apparent.

If the 2.4 pulley is not a bonded pulley, ignore everything I have said!

[DiscoMick]

I also have a noise I think is a pulley. Going to have it looked at soon with the service.

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[patclan]

I picked up the new pulley today from LR, figure it is a 30 min job tomorrow and hopefully the noise is gone and any pending disaster avoided. If the noise is still there then I will have to continue the search, but feeling how the new pulley turns and feels tight I think the old one needs to go anyway so it won't be a waste.

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[patclan]

Remove the serpentine belt and then start the engine, if the sound has gone, it will at least confirm that its related to the front end as you suspect.

pulleys, alternator etc

Regards
Daz

Thanks for that, I did this and the noise was gone, so went ahead and changed the pulley, the one I took off was a bit rattly and I could hear the bearings in it so I thought whoohoo gotcha, but no.. after fitting the noise is still there, I checked all the other pulleys and they seem fine, it is coming from one of the pulleys or one of the accessories hanging off, probably time to take it to a pro, the noise could even be normal now but I doubt it, it drives me nuts, and it never used to.

[patclan]

I decided to have another look just in case I missed something, I realised my process of elimination was flawed at the time, when I took the belt off and the noise went away I ruled out any further pulley issues for some strange reason and and went straight for worst case scenario and an accessory causing the fault, somehow the other night when trying to sleep and had it all going through my mind I realised I was a bloody idiot..

So I just pulled the belt again, and checked the tensioner and it is as rough as hell, I can hear it grind when I turn it, so back to the parts department and I will order a new one. Hopefully it is as easy to replace as the other pulley was. It was the only one I never checked before, probably because I had the breaker bar on it and was leaning on it at the time.

Hopefully that's it though as the noise is getting worse, my wife drove the car the other day and I could hear the car coming up the street.

[patclan]

New part arrived this morning from the UK, $180 delivered, beat the $260 the LR dealer wanted for it, had a few other quotes the highest being $334.

Changed it over, took around 30 mins, and now the noise I have been putting up with for months is gone, it is strange how a noise affects the manner in which you drive your car, now I can hear the engine instead of constant whine it is a much nicer to drive.

Cheers for all the input, I am putting this one down as solved :D
Picture of the new tensioner, the old one sounds terrible just spinning it.