Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: Diamond Black Geezer on 15 September 2016, 14:35:10
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Squeaky front end of the engine. Only at idle, disappears with any revs, even 600rpm seems to clear it.
Will be popping the 'fan' belt off tonight to see if that isolates the problem. Assuming it does, and it's not the timing pulleys/etc, and assuming that the pulley I greased not a fortnight ago isn't the cause of the issue - that sort of means it's likely to be the water pump. Tried the 'cup full of brake fluid in the coolant' trick mentioned on here, with no apparent beneficial results. Seemed like it was for a day or so, but no, it's there, still.
My main worry, after today she skyrocketed in temp in stationary traffic (I've recently replaced the coolant, and must've had a massive airlock in the system, which has now been mostly resolved, by Miss DBG and a mate, so another 'burping session' will hopefully clear that out. So, my main worry is this dry squeak - is this a sign of a dead/smashed impeller, is the water pump stuffed? As we know, swapping that out is the timing knackered, so I'd rather avoid it!
Sigh! ::)
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Water pump removal doesn't demand a belt change ???
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I thought changing the water pump meant the timing required resetting - I must be thinking that 'do the water pump when you do the timing belt' literally refers to the time and faff of getting to the thing, then, but it doesn't actually connect on any level with the timing belt, yes?
Ah, newbie error, only been working on Omega V6s for ten years, (but only seen the timing setup once) hahaha 8)
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Aux belt can make a squeal in some occassions.
There is an old trick from an era when V-belts were used -> smear small quantity of soap on the belt and see if the squeal goes away. If it does, the problem is in belt or belt pulley (it's surface, not the bearing).
You could test this before taking it of, to rule this out.
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While at my mates (mechanic of donkey's years) he tried a little squirt of WD on the belt surface to see, it's definitely not belt, sadly. Unless I'm massively mistaken (err.. thought I have been already once in this thread, and I'm only on my third post!!! ;D) but it's definitely not a belt squeal, it's a squeaksqueaksqueak, as opposed to a squeaaaaaaaaaaalll .... if that makes sense!!!
As I understand it, another option is low power steering fluid, now I know it is low (still above minimum, though) certainly the pump isn't operating 'dry' ??? :-\
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I can imagine the sound :y
One more thing....with engine running (and squealing) try spraing small amount of WD40 on pulleys, see if stops squealing.
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Will do, thanks Bojan.
Sitting in here, at my desk, unable to do anything. Left my missus to go doing her daily chores this morning, get a call ten mins later, with the engine approaching 100 :'( brilliantly she pulled up asap, and shut her off, no engine damage, no warped heads etc.. after a 1/2 hour cool down she came back to work, and we agreed best bet get to my mate's, where the morning could be spend cooling down, and whatever needed to be done, could be done. They burped the coolant, got rid of a massive airlock (there's still some still in there, but much better now) but this squeak was there week ago, and seems to be getting a little worse :(
So it sound like there's nothing terrible at [present, it's an annoying noise, rather than critical engine failure just round the corner? Soon as I've established it's not a timing pulley, anyway! :D
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Is it a squeek or a whizzing. My old cdx belt tensioner went bad and I found it by squirting wd40 on it
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Definite squeak. Like dry metal on dry metal :(
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Start with the easy, cheap, obvious things.
You've got to remove the belt.
Examine the covers and pulleys for wear marks
Next is the tensioner: is it noisy/gritty/rotating correctly? This is the likeliest problem with a serpentine belt assembly.
Then the water pump.
The the PAS pump.
Alternator
A/C compressor - this is the hardest thing to check.
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Many thanks Nick. Will report back later / tomorrow :y
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Check the edge of the belt for marks.
If its sat slightly off centre, it could catch on a bracket (power steering pipe iirc) and chaff making a intermittent sound.
It will also put a offset load on any pulleys which will make it squeal and if they is bering play, it will knacker then PDQ ;)
Ask me how I know this ................. ::) :-[
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PDQ? what's....ohhhh, right!!!! :D
Cheers, Steve. I have, however discovered that the water pump I thought has been in since the last-but-one timing belt replacement (so sub-80k ago) has, in fact been in there one HUNDRED thousand miles and 16 years ago.... so maybe it's just coming to the end of its natural life - however there was some very slight 'furring' to one edge of the belt I noticed the other week, on a totally separate random engine inspection.
Just got in, going to have to do some feet-up time, then inspect things in the pitch black, haha. Which bearing knackered, Steve?
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Water pump running dry :y
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PDQ? what's....ohhhh, right!!!! :D
Cheers, Steve. I have, however discovered that the water pump I thought has been in since the last-but-one timing belt replacement (so sub-80k ago) has, in fact been in there one HUNDRED thousand miles and 16 years ago.... so maybe it's just coming to the end of its natural life - however there was some very slight 'furring' to one edge of the belt I noticed the other week, on a totally separate random engine inspection.
Just got in, going to have to do some feet-up time, then inspect things in the pitch black, haha. Which bearing knackered, Steve?
Aux belt tensioner ;)
In my case, bending the offending bracket out of the way, re greasing the pulley and re fitting the belt sorted it for a few thousand miles before the pulley got noisy again :(
This time, I changed the full pulley / tensioner unit :y
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Start with the easy, cheap, obvious things.
You've got to remove the belt.
Examine the covers and pulleys for wear marks
Next is the tensioner: is it noisy/gritty/rotating correctly? This is the likeliest problem with a serpentine belt assembly.
Then the water pump.
The the PAS pump.
Alternator
A/C compressor - this is the hardest thing to check.
While aux belt off, strip down tensioner bearing, re-pack with grease.
Air-con compressor, get a spray oil, not wd, or silicone, spray a small amount on the front, and down the back of the pulley(clutch).
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Did you manage to find out what is the problem, or at least eliminate some posible sources?
You have mentioned twice the car heated up too much. When did this started happening?
Are you sure about the airlock? As the cooling system is more-less self bleeding.
PS. regarding the regreasing of pulley bearings -> this is OK as preventive action.
However, if the bearing is dry and started making noise, I would rather replace it with a new one (eventually using old, regreased as a temporary fix). If it was running dry, the inner surrface of the bearring could got damaged, and this damage would only progress over time (althought it sounds OK). Its not very likely, but for 20 pounds (cost of tensioner pulley) i wouldn't take that chance on a long run.
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UPDATE:
Water pump! Belt off - no need to even turn her over. Checked the aux pulley, ran like a dream. Main middle pulley, groaned and 'honked', feels like dry rubber. So.. need to see if a decent mix of 50-50 antifreeze-water will quieten it down, or just bite the bullet and swap the water pump over.
I have, of course, got a spare GM water pump waiting, because I'm sad like that. Picked up a new o-ring from Vx today just in case, too.
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??????
You've diagnosed the problem, have a replacement part and are still going to piss about hoping that new coolant will make it better? Another ten minutes and you'll have the new pump in place and will be able to forget about for another 17 years.
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It's purely because I've got some cleaning agent in the system which would apparently have caused the squeal, either that or just pure coincidence, which is possible.
I've been told, I'll have a bash at it tomorrow :y :D