So, I finally got the pulley mod, and been enjoying my new found torque. Drove the car home after the mod ~150 miles on the freeway. Car drove great the following day.

The next morning, upon starting a strange ticking /rubbing? sound is coming from the pulley end of the motor. That I hadn't noticed before. I looked and it appears as though the pulley belt is rubbing on a bolt which is attached to the block between the pulley and the next "roller" just inferior.

I didn't drive the car for fear of damage to the belt. I made some phone calls to the shop where installation was done and long story short, the clearance to this bolt was fixed. I then started the car and the rubbing was gone but I still heard the ticking sound from that end of the motor...I drove...car warms up, ticking gone...hmmm...

The Next day, upon first start and the ticking is back....coming from the supercharger end of the motor. I looked at the pulley belt...all clear no rubbing...I drove until the motor warmed up and the ticking is gone....what gives?...any ideas....now I have ticking after the pulley mod...coindence?

Any one else with ticking upon cold start that goes away after the motor has warmed up....with or without the pulley mod. should I be worried...? I did a seach here and couldn't find anything on engine ticking....some info on another forum...but not specifically on ticking on first cold start that goes away after motor warmed up. Could something bad had happened with the install? (Engine Jack technique)
Am I going to have warranty voided nightmares?

Any info would be appreciated, is this a coincidence or related to pulley mod or something else?


His, Chile Red All over / Hers, EB UJ on top.

 

Hmh maybe the stress of having the belt rubbing that bolt pulled the pulley or something in the SC at an angle. Once everything warms up the metal exspands and is pulled back into the correct positon.

Just a guess.

 

I hate to ask this, but did an experienced shop install the pulley, or a shop doing it for the first time? The pulley has to go on easily. If it is hammered on, damage can be done to the supercharger. Hopefully, the noise is not coming from the opposite end of the supercharger. A stethoscope with a pointy tip will tell the story. Sorry to scare you. Good luck.

PerfPow

 

>>I hate to ask this, but did an experienced shop install the pulley, or a shop doing it for the first time? The pulley has to go on easily. If it is hammered on, damage can be done to the supercharger. Hopefully, the noise is not coming from the opposite end of the supercharger. A stethoscope with a pointy tip will tell the story. Sorry to scare you. Good luck.
>>
>>PerfPow

A big screw driver will work just about as well too or a length of rubber hose. I would go out and listen around see if you can pin point it.

 

TwoMinis,

You don't have any unpaid loans that you're behind on, do you? That might explain the ticking... :smile:

Shoot me a mail...

-Jim

 

The only thing that comes to mind is valvetrain, but that wouldn't be explained in any way by a pulley mod. I'll go ahead and ask, though, you're running standard oil, and it's not low? It's a shot in the dark, really.

Also, if it were supercharger related the ticking would be a high frequency relative to revs. Valve-train tick at idle would be ticking about as fast as you could say tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-. Clear as mud, eh?

Jeff

ps: I had an old Miata used to complain when the oil needed changing or was low. Happened only on start-up.

 

p.p.s. So the stethoscope will really work? I always wondered how folks pinpointed sounds like that!

 

Sound Byte????

 

I have a ticking noise, but its clutch/transmission related. Probably not the same thing, if you're sure about where the noise is comming from. If you can make the ticking reappear by operating the clutch in-and-our quickly with the transmission out of gear, then its similar to what I've got. Otherwise, is your warranty still good with the pully mod?

I guess you could always 'un-mod' it, see if the ticking is still there, and take it in to the dealer. It might not be a coincidental problem that's not related to the pully.

good luck

 

Hi Two MINIS

I will try and help out here, it is always hard when you can not see or in this case hear the car.

A few questions about the belt first off

How did you stop the belt from walking on the pulley? What caused the problem in the first place and how did you cure it? After, Did you change the belt out to a new one?


About the ticking,

You say it goes away when the motor warms up, how long does this take? 30 sec - 2 min - 20 min? Does the ticking change with an increase in RPM's ? How many miles are on your car?

I have a few ideas but I will wait until I hear a little more information about your car first.

 

There is a really flimsy metal thing by the Pulley belt tensioner.. it rattles on mine and sounds like a ticking.. check to see if that is rattling.. It's got a twist on the top, and a hole that you can see.

Good Luck

 

MiniPilo, That is the tension holder for when you want to take the force off of the belt. It is possible that it was bent when they put a pick ( or other object) into it to hold it in place during the pulley install. I am not sure that it would go away when the motor temp went up though.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll try to answer a few questions

Perfpow: Installed by a professional who did the same on his "S" and several others without problems. The only pounding I witnessed, as I was in the shop the entire time, occurred when the stock pulley was being removed by a puller....the puller had three "arms" that went around the stock pulley and a bolt that screwed into the "hole" at the end of the supercharger spindle. (It reminded me of a steering wheel puller) The stock pulley was heated to aide in removal. The smaller pulley slipped on with ease. The noise seems to be coming from the pulley end of the motor. I can't seem to isolate it with a real stethescope without risking having my ears removed.

Jayoung: Yea, what are you a comedian? when the ticking stops nothing happens

Friedduck : the sound seems to be coming from the serpiginous belt. Somewhere in that dark hole, which is nearly invisible, is the sound, can't tell if its coming from the pulley of the supercharger or one of the other pulleys or rollers. Doubt valve, but what do I know.... I did check the oil level....damn dipstick....so @%&*ed and I was down about 1/2 qt. I added oil and with luck tomarrow am, cold engine start will prove you right!
The ticking frequency is like you described though...tick tick tick tick tick and seems to be in phase with revolutions, not faster.

brgfan: the sound doesn't change with depressing the clutch. I have read about that problem on the other forum http://www.mini2.com just do a search "engine ticking". I cant really change back to the stock pulley as it is destroyed when removed. And the added torque is like "crack"...once used, hard to stop


MCSHP I'll look into a sound byte...but it only occurs for few min...then gone...

chris@helix
Belt walking on the pulley....?? do you mean coming off...well it seems as if the pulley was just 1-2 mm shifted/ installed towards the supercharger housing from stock as compared to my wife's stock S and belt position. Perhaps the Helix pulley was installed just a whisker hair too far on the spindle...but it is flush with the end of the spindle. The bolt in question is between the supercharger pulley and the next roller just below attached to the block...the bolt was replaced by the installer after he drove 150 miles and replaced it with a "shorter bolt" thus now the belt clears it. I was told that this is a mystery bolt..."no fluids come out when removed and nothing attached to it" Anyone know what it is for??/ anyway....the rubbing was witnessed for < 1 min when I first noticed it and then motor shut down till fixed....I was unable to detect any noticible wear on the belt so stock one remains.

The ticking goes away/ diminishes within 3 min after the first cold engine start and is gone by 5 min give or take...When the heat gadge is 1/4 up ticking gone..It does change with rpms during these first few min. The car has a ~ 2500 miles.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions....I did call the installer who heard the ticking after I started the car to ensure the belt was clear and he reassures me that it sounded like a bearing and not to worry as it goes away within mins...


His, chile Red all over / Hers, EB UJ on top

 

he may be right about the bearing. I have seen the seal and the ball retainer click on ball bearings before with no ill effects.

as the to hub fit on the shaft:

the P&D pulley/hub was carefully machined to exactly match the stock pulley as far as the loation of the grooves with respect to the shaft end. My assumption was that all the blower shafts would extend the same length and that all the stock pulleys would be dimensionally the same. We set our dimensions to be identical when the hub is fully on the shaft and flush with the end when the plastic button is removed.

 

The tolerances on the eaton blower are pretty crummy and the units do rattlle at idle by nature. Its possible that yours rattles more at 15% higher speed.


--
Cheese

 

It only "rattles" , if the supercharger is the source, for about 5 min max. Once the motor is warmed up...ticking/ rattle disappears...Car runs strong...

I guess the ticking is just an annoyance at this point, I can't help feeling like something was disrupted with the installation....somewhere...time will tell.


His, Chile Red all over/ Hers, EB UJ on top

 

Lots of tolerances change when things get heated up. You'd be suprised at the lengths good shops go to when assembling or machining close tolerance engines with regards to temperature.

--
Cheese

 

You know, out of curiousity I listened to my engine with the bonnet up this morning. There's kinda a "ticking" sound from around the supercharger. Can't say if it was there prior to the pulley install. But one thing I did notice after the install was I'm getting shocked now occasionally when I get out of the car from the metal handle. Curious if you are having the same issue.

R

 

>> But one thing I did notice after the install was I'm getting shocked now occasionally when I get out of the car from the metal handle. Curious if you are having the same issue.


I don't have the pulley mod and I get shocked 90% of the time!

 

Haven't been shocked

 

I suspect that the "shocking" is coming from the significantly higher flow of air molecules flowing over the surface of the vehicle since you installed the pulley.

Or, have you been wearing leather sole shoes and is it wet? :smile:

 

Hmmmm...I do wear leather soled shoes...and it is Oregon... maybe that's it. I just don't remember getting shocked prior. Just a quick little *zap* like you had been scuffling your feet on the carpet or something. No biggie. But it does startle you!

Yup, only kinda "ticks" for first few minutes.

R

 

Well it does bring comfort is someone else has noticed the same phenomenon. I should clarify...the "tick" is more like a "Che" sound almost like a maraca. Isn't the new MINI part "Brazilian"?


His, Chile Red all over / Hers, EB UJ on top.

 

Just thought I'd update the post.

Where was I?

So, I was told by one of the MCO "experts, gurus, senseis" that the ticking/ maraca/rubbing sound was the belt rubbing "somewhere" along it's serpiginous path. The solution I was told was a "spacer" that would need to be put in-between the two pieces of the Helix pulley to shift is ever so slightly towards the right front wheel direction of the car.(away from the supercharger)

So about 1O days ago I participated in my first Auto-X. It was a 2 hr drive away at freeway speeds +++ , a day of high revs of Auto-Xing and 2 more hours of freeeway speeds + (another wink wink )

The following morning....no ticking/rubbing..i.e. maraca sound...What the $&*#! ? I though it was just my imagination and that my hearing was effected by the previous days worth of "magnaflow music"...nope...the sound has disappeared...What gives?

Now, I've inspected the belt and I am unable to appreciate any wear to the inside edge of the belt? In fact I'm not really convinced that was the issue...

I guess a day of Auto-X ing has exorsized the "post pulley install ticking demons".


His, Chile RED all over / Hers, EB UJ on top.

 

sometimes you just have to beat the heck out of something before it works 100%.