N54 chirping like a box of Starlings ?

[jon dee 500]

Cold start after not being used for a week. Backed it out of the garage and left the car idling when I went to shut the garage door. Walking back to the car I could hear a very obvious and continuous chirping. Seemed to be coming from the front of the engine. The noise disappeared pretty quickly after I started driving and didn't hear it again for the rest of the day. Car has less than 100K kilometers on the clock and not showing any trouble lights. 

This noise sounds more like a dry bearing rather than a belt slipping, so if someone could give a heads up on the most likely culprit (idler pulley perhaps) it would be much appreciated.

Cheers...

[gofaster 101]

a bird in your engine bay that scarpered when you drove off?

[jon dee 500]

14 hours ago, gofaster said:

a bird in your engine bay that scarpered when you drove off?

Nice try, but I had a quick look and I can see a bit of oil getting sprayed around front passenger side of the engine. Probably an oil leak dropping oil on the belt. Understand this is not unusual for these engines, so I will dig into this when I get my other car fixed up to pass WOF re-check. Fkn cars

 

[*Glenn* 854]

A good tool to have in your tool kit is stethoscope for finding these issues.  

 

[jon dee 500]

51 minutes ago, *Glenn* said:

A good tool to have in your tool kit is stethoscope for finding these issues.  

Long screwdriver works for me, but there is a lot of plastic that has to be removed for access and I need to fix the oil leak first.

[jon dee 500]

I'm not an automotve designer or engineer, but I do wonder why anyone would build a car where it is necessary to remove the intercooler to access the radiator drain plug ??? The only reason I can think of is that there is so much crap packed into the limited space in front of the engine, that they could not find room for a plug in an accessible spot. 

Then there is the wonderful top radiator hose with its oh-so-easy to break overflow hose spigot, and the quick connect coupling o-ring that swells up and pops out and cannot be re-used. Of course the dealership doesn't sell the o-ring, you are expected to buy a complete new hose assembly. Luckily a suitable o-ring can be bought for a couple of bucks from your local industrial seal supplier. Size 46 x 4 apparently. 

Looks like the oil was coming from the designed to fail oil filter assembly. Hopefully replacing the base and oil thermostat seals will cure that. The belt was so well greased with oil and dirt that I am surprised to was able to squeak   Cleaned and checked the tensioner and idler pulleys and they look to be OK for further use, so hopefully with a new belt fitted I will be good to go. 

To be continued....

[elias 255]

Glad your car didnt decide to eat the belt, is a fairly common cause for engine failure. The oil causes the belt to swell, it slips off the pulley, due to the design of the crank pulley it can only slip off backwards and gets forced through the crankseal into the sump, and clogs the oil pickup causing loss of oil pressure and in many cases catastrophic failure. Can get crank seal guards to help prevent this for peace of mind, but keeping on top of gaskets and squeaky tensioners/idlers is the best method.

I had my car towed home when i noticed a failed OFHG, just me being extra careful. Oil filter/oil cooler gasket isnt the most fun job, makes one hell of a mess. Make sure to prime your engine oil before you start your car to be safe as well! Have don this job a coupe times now haha

[gofaster 101]

16 hours ago, elias said:

Glad your car didnt decide to eat the belt, is a fairly common cause for engine failure. The oil causes the belt to swell, it slips off the pulley, due to the design of the crank pulley it can only slip off backwards and gets forced through the crankseal into the sump, and clogs the oil pickup causing loss of oil pressure and in many cases catastrophic failure. Can get crank seal guards to help prevent this for peace of mind, but keeping on top of gaskets and squeaky tensioners/idlers is the best method.

I had my car towed home when i noticed a failed OFHG, just me being extra careful. Oil filter/oil cooler gasket isnt the most fun job, makes one hell of a mess. Make sure to prime your engine oil before you start your car to be safe as well! Have don this job a coupe times now haha

Elias. Out of curiosity how do you prime your engine oil? I have done several oil changes now and just fired her up 😲

[elias 255]

18 minutes ago, gofaster said:

Elias. Out of curiosity how do you prime your engine oil? I have done several oil changes now and just fired her up 😲

Priming your engine oil is only necessary if you interrupt the the oil supply circuit such as removing the oil filter housing, removing the oil cooler or oil cooler lines etc. A normal oil change wont require priming. The easiest way to prime the oil is to disconnect all 6 fuel injector's electrical connectors, then crank the engine for 10 seconds, give it 20 seconds to allow the starter motor to cool off again, then repeat 2 more times. The starter motor will turn over the engine which will run the oil pump and prime your oil. Then plug all the fuel injectors' connectors back in and start the car. 

[jon dee 500]

Any chance that there is a fuse somewhere that can be pulled to disable the injectors ? 

[elias 255]

47 minutes ago, jon dee said:

Any chance that there is a fuse somewhere that can be pulled to disable the injectors ? 

im sure therred be a fuel pump fuse somewhere, but have never looked, easy enough to just pull the injector wires.

[jon dee 500]

Wasted 20 minutes of my life trying to figure out how to get the wiring clip off the injector and gave it away. Can't understand why BM make everything so difficult ?? So I went and found the fusebox and removed the #70 fuse, no easy task either unless you are a midget contortionist. Gave the engine five bursts on the starter, replaced the fuse and started the engine. Sounded a bit like a couple of cylinders weren't too happy to begin with but settled after 20 seconds. Let it run for a bit and no sign of any oil or coolant leaks at this stage. 

There are recommendations for using the BM "automated cooling system bleeding procedure", but is that strictly necessary ? I only dropped enough coolant to stop it running out of the top radiator hose when I disconnected it. So the pump and everything lower than the top hose would have stayed full of coolant. My battery is nearly flat so I am hoping that going for a gentle drive (heater maxed out) and checking/topping up the coolant (if required) multiple times would be enough to get any air out of the cooling system. Good or bad idea ?

[jon dee 500]

Managed to get the automated bleeding to run by hooking up my portable generator to a battery charger and boosting the battery while the water pump was doing its thing. Still managed to pull the battery pretty low so seems good advice to use a charger. Only needed about 200ml of coolant to top up the reservoir, so can't have been much air in the system. Test drove the car and it runs fine with no sign of any leaks. 

Car will be for sale next week after I get a new WOF and new rego. Only done 93,XXX km and pretty tidy all round