Q: Chirping rattling noise hood
I started hearing a strange chirping-rattling noise coming from under the hood of my 2009 xD. It sounds like a tensioner pulley, bearing chirp, but it only happens when the car is stopped at a stop light and when the car is in park. It goes away when you start driving. I think it’s the tensioner pulley, but I can't find one for it anywhere. I just recently had the water pump and belt replaced. Do you know what this sound could be? How can we fix it?
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The tensioner pulley is near the top center of the engine. It is easy to spot as the back of the belt rides on the tensioner pulley and not the ribbed side.
Removing the belt to access the pulley to see if the pulley rotation is loose or notchy is not very difficult, but if the tensioner assembly needs to be replaced, this is a bit more complicated as the tensioner mount which comes with a new tensioner assembly that bolts to the engine has quite a few items in the way that make it challenging to access the bolts.
Before removing the belt, it may be a good to carefully use an engine stethoscope to locate and verify the location of the noise.
Because the engine will need to be running during a check with the stethoscope one needs to very careful to not get the stethoscope tangled with rotating engine parts as serious injury can occur.
You may want to enlist the help of a mechanic, such as one from YourMechanic, who will be able to verify and confirm the noise source and be able to correct the issue.
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