A bit of a squeak...

[Wussie]

Hello all.

I am hoping for some wisdom to help me with a slight problem.

My 2010 Sprinter has an almighty squeal under medium to heavy load from around 1500rpm onwards. And the steering was lacking a lot of power assitance especially at low speed.

The noise sounds like the auxiliary belt, so I replaced both the belt and the tensioner. I compared the old and new belts and the old one was so far worn it was transparent and the tensioner couldn't pull the skin off a rice puddin'.

After fitting the new belt and tensioner the only thing that improved was the power assistance for the steering.......... and that was marginal at best. The squeal persists as if nothing has changed and the power steering still chuggs a bit at full lock.

My next theory is the power steering pump itself as when I checked the pulleys, it was the only one to offer significant resistance.

If anyone could offer any suggestions, it would be most appreciated.

 

[mattkh]

When you had the belt off, that was the time to turn all the pulleys one at a time. That way you know which item is making the noise.

 

[Wussie]

I did give pulleys a spin and wiggle to see if there was any noise or play in them but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary other than the power steering pulley being much harder to turn.

I shall whip the belt off tomorrow and have another butchers to see if I missed anything though.

 

[mattkh]

Thanks.
Before you whip the belt off, also check to see, with the engine running, if the belt is running in a straight line.
If you have a smaller belt spare, you can put it on without going round the power steering pulley and see the effect as you can run the engine for a tiny while.
One other thing, when the belt is off, put some talcum powder on the pulley grooves.

 

[Wussie]

Sorry for the late reply, whenever I plan to do something I always end up having to do something else....

I had a good look at the pulleys and the belt while the engine was running and everything looked nice and square. I took the belt off checked the pulleys again and aside from a slightly stiff power steering pump, all seemed fine. At this point I decided to run the engine for a few seconds without the belt and to my suprise the squeal didn't go away..... So I think I can rule out anything associated with the auxilliary belt.

My attention was drawn to the turbo as I noticed some oil dribbling down the charge pipe between the turbo and intercooler. This seemed to be coming from the connection between the cast outlet pipe and flexible pipe half way between the turbo and the intercooler.
After listening to the squeal for a few (lots) of hours, it comes and goes in time with when the turbo should be working and therefore seems connected to engine load.
My next thought then is to remove and clean the pipe, see if the sealing surfaces are good and fit new clips.

What puzzles me though is that I have dealt with high pressure air leaks but I've never heard one sound like a squeaky drive belt...

 

[mattkh]

Most grateful to you for the update.

 

[Wussie]

Good evening all.

I thought I would drop in an update as to what's been found so far.

The squeak has been identified as a leaky exhaust manifold, as well as all 4 injectors blowing and leaking fuel internally.
I replaced the charge pipe which turned out to have a nice split in it at the top and part of the retaining clip had broken. Fuel economy has improved by a huge ammount and the van has finally given up smoking. Unfortunately, now that the engine is getting all of it's intake air, the extra pressure has actually made the squeal worse

My next plan is to replace the injectors but I have a couple of questions regarding programming.

I believe the ECU has to be updated with the new injector coding.
First question is will the engine still work (albeit like a bag of spanners) with the new injectors before the ECU gets updated, or does the update need to be done before I even try to start it up?
I ask because my experience of injectors is limited to engines I can put the van inside, fit new injector, prime and bleed, fire up and away you go.