is this alternator or alternator belt?

DARK6mt · 18th December 2009, 14:13

I noticed last night when I was showing my car for the first time to a friend. He recently traded his 335 for 530 (baby on the way) and was very very depressed

anyhow so I am showing him everything about the beast and we turn on the courtesy light to show him the interior of the car then notices the light is kinda dimming every 3 second intervals.

Right away I remember the sound at the engine bay which is like a hiss sound, that I thought was the serpentine belt, is most likely alternator belt and even worn pulley?

Met with member here name Striker, nice guy!, and his car didnt have the hiss sound of my car so its def abnormal.

thanks to the board

james

Strike · 18th December 2009, 15:31

Hey James - it was good to meet you. Two things I'm thinking you could do to check this out. If you've got access to a multimeter, set it to volts and put the probes on the connections used to jump-start the car. You should be able to read the battery voltage from there. If not you'll have to put the probes on the battery terminals in the trunk. When the car is off you should have about 12.6 volts. When at idle it should read between 13.5 and 14.5 volts. If it's lower than that, the alternator may be failing.

Another guick thing you could do to check it is locate the alternator and spray a small amount of WD-40 or rust penetrant on the bearing behind the pulley. If it makes that light whistle go away chances are the bearing is failing and that's the cause of that noise we heard.

DARK6mt · 18th December 2009, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strike

Hey James - it was good to meet you. Two things I'm thinking you could do to check this out. If you've got access to a multimeter, set it to volts and put the probes on the connections used to jump-start the car. You should be able to read the battery voltage from there. If not you'll have to put the probes on the battery terminals in the trunk. When the car is off you should have about 12.6 volts. When at idle it should read between 13.5 and 14.5 volts. If it's lower than that, the alternator may be failing.

Another guick thing you could do to check it is locate the alternator and spray a small amount of WD-40 or rust penetrant on the bearing behind the pulley. If it makes that light whistle go away chances are the bearing is failing and that's the cause of that noise we heard.

Thanks Scott, I will try that this weekend since the snow is coming I will be stuck at home. Although I will be tempted to try driving her like grandma, um... bad idea with summers on ay?

I will let you know the results regarding the voltage and after the quick spray, need to find the diagram so you can pin point exactly where I should spray.

btw, great seeing you last night, we should have a philly M5 mini meet!!

james

Strike · 18th December 2009, 16:47

I'm down for it - I know there are several in the area.

I say go for it. If she's not going to be garaged and will be exposed to it anyway you should definitely take it for a ride. One of the UK members just posted about his first snow drive. I only worry about the other people on the road, never myself. I used to be a strong opponent of electronic driving aids, in fact, this is the first car I've ever owned that has ABS because I used to be so strongly against that sort of stuff. That said, you've gotta experience just how good the DSC can be. Leave it on and drive normally in the snow, at reasonable speeds of course, and you'll be amazed at how it does its job. You can literally feel it correcting you if you push too hard, really quite impressive.