Noises

[Anthony1664]

Hi,

My other halfs lovely little Wind Collection has developed a couple of noises I want to try and sort. The 1st is an annoying roof creak/rattle which seems to go for a little bit after you open the roof then close it again.

The 2nd has only occurred in the last two days and is either the noise of the starter cog not fully meshing or some noise from the AC drive/pump.

Wondered if any other owners had anything similar and what needed fixed?

 

[oscar]

on the first one, that's close to impossible to say really because there could be a huge host of things that could be rattling around somewhere from a coin out someones pockets to trim parts. this is really a case of a bit of anal hunting around the car to find anything that may be loose, very very annoying.


on the 2nd one you mentioned. you mentioned the starter motor, so i can assume this happens on start up alone. over time, the cogs as you called them or to keep it simple the teeth on the cog wear out and eventually smooth out. any oil that comes up from the road, or grease or dirt can increase the inefficiency of an already worn starter motor gear. it will still work perfectly, but gets very noisy as they are set to work at a set clearance and this becomes reduced with wear. it would be of no harm to disconnect the battery and earth cables on the starter motor to check for a bad earth, remove any corrosion and clean it up as nice as you can. we can rule out an AC problem, as if this was an AC problem with it's belt or pulley etc, it would be a constant noise regardless of wether or not AC is on or not. no harm to pop the bonnet and get the other half to start the car so that you can listen for the problem, do this a few times so that you can pinpoint the problem over a few starts. starter motor is a very simple job, you can do this with basic tools to save yourself some money should you want to replace it. i can write you a good guide should you require it.


also, welome to the forum!

 

[Anthony1664]

Cheers thanks for the welcome, very helpful.

Yeh I think a lot of poking about and I will find what rattles lol, already had a bit of a look and sure its something roof drive related like a strut not under tension when the roofs up.

I think its got to be starter related as it's happened twice in the last two days at start up. Very happy to break out the tools have dabbled with many repairs over time so certainly think I will have a good look at connections and the starter the car only has 25k on it so still fairly new but out of warranty.

 

[oscar]

the best thing to do is get under the car with it jacked up (obviously i'd do this on a 2 poster ramp in work!) and disconnect the fuel line & fuel pump / fuel relay so that it may crank but never start. initially the car will start and abruplty cut out, as it's running on the small amount of residual fuel in the fuel lines between pump and injectors. after it's stalled with no fuel, take the fuel lines off. by going down this route, you'll get a better idea of wether or not it's metal on metal contact from the starter ring gear and flywheel. crank it for 10-15 seconds and then pause for 10-15 seconds. keep doing this until you are confident that you can hear the noise only when the starter motor is engaged.

offcourse if you can't hear it, then it'll be time to look elsewhere.

i'd warn you though, you may empty your battery of charge(will be okay with a bump start or jump start) just go for a 20 minute drive and you'll be right as rain

 

[oscar]

thought i'd best add that in my oppinion it sounds like it could be a bearing noise as it is running down offloaded? as if once you've stopped turning the key it makes the screeshy noise for maybe half a second then vannishes?

starters usually have phosphorous bronze oilite bushes so you'd be good to try a tad of fresh oil i've seen this problem with some renault lagunas with the k4m, they share certain common parts namely starter although it wasn't anything to worry about.

 

[oscar]

Steps to fix car start up grinding noise man!

1) Lift the bonnet and disconnect the battery.

2) To locate, follow the positive battery cable from the battery and it should lead directly to the starter.

3) Raise the vehicle with a jack if need be, then remove the positive battery cable from the starter motor.

4) Remove the solenoid energizer wire. The wire is much smaller than the battery cable, but is still a vital part of the starter motor.


5) Remove the starter mounting bolts and set aside.

6) Look within the starter mounting hole and examine the ring gear teeth. When completely normal, the teeth should appear fresh, the edges should be sharp and crisp, and the teeth should be free of chips and discoloration. If the teeth don’t look like this, then unfortunately the transmission must be removed and the flywheel or ring gear flex plate must be replaced. However, if the ring gear doesn’t show any abnormal wear, then the problem lies with the starter and it will have to be replaced.

7) Test the starter by mounting it in a large vise. With the jumper cables, attach the ground cable from a battery to the starter body and a positive cable to the starter positive post (where the main battery attaches). Now, attach the jumper wire from the solenoid-activator connection. Attach this wire directly to the starter positive post. If done correctly, the starter should start to spin and the starter drive-gear should forcefully extend.


8) Finally, check on the starter drive gear teeth. These are made of much harder steel and thus should show far less sign of wear than the ring gear. Even so, replace the starter assembly anyways. The problem is that the solenoid is weak and not pushing the gear far enough into the ring gear. This process creates grinding that is forceful enough to start the car, but ultimately it will die and will need to be fixed.



ps don't be scared of 12 volts. you'd barely feel it!

 

[Anthony1664]

thought i'd best add that in my oppinion it sounds like it could be a bearing noise as it is running down offloaded? as if once you've stopped turning the key it makes the screeshy noise for maybe half a second then vannishes?

Yes that's a good description of what it sounds like.

Thanks for the how to very useful, will break out the ramps, trolley jack and axel stands as soon as I have some free time and investigate if it keeps occurring.

 

[singlespeed]

Is your aircon working correctly?

Ive also got a noise, and my climate control doesnt work correctly (No cooling and going fully cold or fully hot no longer shows "LO" or "HI") , but I'm not sure yet is its a result of the Climate Control ECU not talking with the replacement Engine ECU or, an actual AC fault. About a second after starting mine, theres a sound like someone crushing a drinks can under foot :?

 

[Anthony1664]

Yeh AC seems to be working fine

 

[Blondie]

The roof could need realigning
Mine had an intermittent squeaky rattle-y noise
I mentioned it when it went fit service & they "reset" the roof alignment & it's fine!!

 

[MovingShadow]

I had the roof rattle as wel. Mentioned it to my garage and they did a realignment (still under warranty).
Some time later it was rattling again so I got some silicone grease and since then the rattling has been greatly reduced.

Edit: put the silicone grease on the hinges where the roof connects with the top of the front windshield.

 

[Anthony1664]

Cheers folks, she is due a service soon so might go to a real dealer and see how much a roof realine would cost. Just found my can of silicon spray I had for the rubbers on an Alfa with 1st drop windows that would freeze to rubber when cold so will give that a blast too