Power Steering Pulley Bad? swoosh swoosh sound

Hi,

I've noticed a swoosh swoosh sound coming from the serpentine belt / timing belt area during cold starts in the morning.

My old serpentine belt had frayed on one of the edges so I replaced it with a new one. The swoosh swoosh sound was reduced but still noticeable.

I replaced the idler roller, although the old one felt smooth.

I checked the alternator pulley (I jammed a screw driver and found out it was a solid one) and it also turned smoothly.

The last thing is the power steering pulley. It seems to have some play (about 1 or 2 mm) in terms of how far out or close it is to the pump.

Is that normal?
or should I start looking at replacing the pulley/pump? The bolts seemed to be on nice and tight, are those throw away bolts.

Thanks.

Alex

The bolts can be re-used.

What about the roller on the tensioner? It could be the culprit.

Considering the sound/noise changed when you installed a new Serp belt, you must be closing in on the problem area.

You really need an over-ride pulley on the ALT as the sudden stop of the engine (and ALT) at shut-down really stresses the Serp belt.

Make VERY SURE it's not coming from the timing belt. An easy way to check is to remove the top cover, start the engine and with a candle lightly touch the EDGE of the belt (on each side) to put a bit of lubricant on the edge.

If the noise disappears or is notably changed when you do that the belt is probably riding on the edge of the only thing that has an edge in the timing belt path, which is the tensioner.

This in turn means something has a problem in the timing belt system path, whether it be the water pump, tensioner itself or similar and you probably want to find it for all the obvious reasons.

If all else doesn't work, check brand of belt. I had a cyclic swooshing and couldn't figure it out. Now I forget which, but when I changed brands (even though the old belt didn't have much mileage) the sound went away. it was driving me crazy.

Sometimes timing belt systems make this kind of noise when the engine's cold. Some say it happens when a small amount of belt material gets attached to a roller. Mine did, on at least one belt assembly. It would go away when the car was warm. I recall it started about 60K into the interval but I didn't replace the belt early. It did fine up to 100K.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Sometimes timing belt systems make this kind of noise when the engine's cold. Some say it happens when a small amount of belt material gets attached to a roller. Mine did, on at least one belt assembly. It would go away when the car was warm. I recall it started about 60K into the interval but I didn't replace the belt early. It did fine up to 100K.

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