I hope there's someone that can give me a clue to what might be wrong with my '05. A couple of months ago, I was sitting at a red light, and as it turned green and I pressed on the gas to go, I heard this sound like someone had thrown a rock at my car or something, but I never saw anything. It really startled me. A little later that day, I started hearing this chirping noise from the engine...not a squealing like you would hear with belt. Over the next few days it started getting louder so I decided to just park it until I could look at it and figure out what was going on...that was a couple of months ago. Well, I was forced to have to drive it today before I could look at, but while it was sitting, the inspection and registration had expired. When I took it to get the state inspection, the battery light and check engine light came on, so we opened the hood and could see that the alternator pulley wasn't really turning and we noticed metal shavings around the tensioner and some other places where they had dropped. We decided to turn the a/c off and the battery and check engine light went off and the alternator pulley was turning again. And it smelled like a belt was burning or something. I have 98K, miles on it and I'm thinking that the tensioner needs to be replaced, but I wanted to see if anyone here has had the same symptoms when the tensioner went out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

The tensioner can hit the supercharger in an S, you didn't say what you have. You have to get a belt and then inspect the tensioner no matter what. It may just be a badly stretched belt, but the shavings seem to point to tensioner fail.

 

Could the AC compressor be seized? As soon as you turn off the AC, the AC cluch will turn freely, but will lock up with it on.

Dave

 

Sorry HRM, yesterday was a loooong day The reason I had to drive the mini before I wanted to, was because the 3rd and 4th gear in my Yukon burned up while on the way to taking my son to the airport. And after I got the registration for the mini and was on my way to get the state inspection, I got pulled over and received a ticket for....you guessed it...expired inspection. Sorry for the rant, but yesterday was not a good day for me. Anyway, yes it is an S model. I've been wanting to put a reduced pulley on it anyway, so I guess I might as well replace the tensioner. Have you replaced one before? I've seen some threads where some people have taken the front tire off and gotten to it through the wheel well. Just wondering what's the best way to get it.

 

Dave,

I'm pretty sure that the A/C was still blowing cold air while all of this was happening, but I'll check and see just to be sure.