oil light on

[mr.oogieboogie]

well oil light is on with the car started, pas belt seems nice and tight and oil level is fine and pressure good. wife said it was scheeching yesterday so I checked the belt and nipped it up still squeeling wonder if the belt has stretched.

any suggestions welcome

Edited November 2, 2013 by mr.oogieboogie

[sailorbob]

The oil pump runs off the cam belt. Has the connector come off the oil pressure warning switch?

[dodge1979]

And are you sure its an ancillary belt and not the tensioner bearing for the cam belt..

[mr.oogieboogie]

Will get back under it in the morning so hope to ser then

[dodge1979]

Squealing I mean

Also is the squeeling happening at idle and goes with a blip of the throttle. Does it only happen whilst using the steering at stationary. Ie parking. Does it happen only whilst cold or the car has been left for a bit but goes when hot. .

[mr.oogieboogie]

At idle. Goes off a bit when bliped but also when driving. Main worry is oil light on .was fine the other day. Until the wife took my 10 year old to the disco as he wanted to arrive in style. Maybe all the rain has contribuited over the last week or so.

[andydclements]

Worth checking that it's not a poor connection, some models have a separate oil pressure gauge but I guess yours doesn't, so the only way to know whether the oil pressure is really dangerously low is to either fit a gauge temporarily (gauge as tool) or swap out the sender unit.

[mr.oogieboogie]

The gague shows good pressure but the light is on

[Alex Carter]

Take the oil transducer out its next to the filter and check your pressure with a manual gauge to be safe

[cbclotus]

Hi Peter.I am useless with spanners,Hope you find the fault.Mike

[mr.oogieboogie]

Ok car will be in the air in 30 mins. Thanks for the help

[mr.oogieboogie]

righ car beginning to piss me off now.

replaced both belts both nice and tight. start car lots of squeeling. battery light on and oil light on oil level is fine light goes out when above 14rpm but comes on when less than that. spray a bit of wd40 under the car. car starts fine no squeeling. drive car car feels fine oil pressure realy good but oil light still coming on  and battery light on. 5 mins later squeeling, stop car alternator belt loose. retighten yet again start car drive 2 mins squeeling again and smoke coming from engine vents. stop car smoke coming from battery. leave car pissed off walk back home in rain. im thinking that bearings or something else has gone in the alternator so the current is not regulated when its going back to the battery. I will get the car back in the next hour or so and get the multimeter out. dont understand why the belt looses tension as everything is pretty new and was done up tight twice. 

Edited November 3, 2013 by mr.oogieboogie

[CHANGES]

Hi Peter

On the oil light issue, This works through a drop out relay which will stop it

coming on below 1500rpm.. The fact that it is on below that and switches off

above  will point towards the relay being a possible area to look at...

As for the rest...Take a deep breath have a cup of tea... and tell yourself......

This is an Esprit...all part of the fun...  Then...........

Start again one step at a time and to the book.!!!    It will all be fine in the end...

[Mike6]

Hi Peter

 

Even with new belts squeeling can still come from shiny or oily pulleys letting the belt slip a fraction. Did you properly clean out all the grooves on the pulleys before refitting belts. Also as our cars are different models it may not apply on your car but I have noticed my alternator belt loosing a little tension. The top bolt on the alternator seems to do most of the work with a rather strange grooved nylon adjustor rod underneath which appears to be the tensioner but in use (probably the vibration) seems to allow the nut and bolt to loosen a little

 

Cannot think why you would have smoke coming from battery unless a major electrical problem nor why anyone would spray WD40 under the car (what were you aiming the spray at) 

[mr.oogieboogie]

thanks for the adviice. got the car back after making a couple of short runs due to the smoke.

well the wd40 was to try to remove moisure as the car has been sat out in the weather for the past few weeks. I have taken off the alternator  and will get it tested tomorrow. I have seen these try to fry the battery (as this happened on the motorola one that was on the car when I firts got it) there is no resistance that i can feel on the alternator but it does smell like its been burning all the alternator connectors look fine. I also cannot see any thing catching or rubbing on any of the other the belts.

as for the oil light I did find a wire off near the oil filter behing the ht leads looks like a cylinder with two terminals on it might be the oil pressure relay thing. not sure why this is off as I havent been around that area for many months. the groves were all clean on all the pulley wheels, also the plastic runner that the alternator slides on seems fine all nuts and bolts washers are pretty much new and all stainless.

all the best

[CHANGES]

If the wire is off there  is your problem , one terminal is the gauge and the other 

the light... Another in that area will be oil temp..  Still not sure why it will be on below

1500rpm though...unless open circuit activates light.. will be interesting to find out.. 

[mr.oogieboogie]

the gauge and temp seem to work fine. well the car worked fine until the other day bloody thing. still i dont mind working on it but when its pissing down with rain its no fun

Edited November 3, 2013 by mr.oogieboogie

[mr.oogieboogie]

Well alternator tested fine no issues. Having another look there is some battery disconnect thing which looks like i wired it but i didnt. So that will be coming out. Belt loks to have been melting .

Will start the car over the weekend with the alternator off so i ca see if there is rubbing or noise from the cam belt bearing or compressor which i may take off as theres no gas in it and i have never used it. Can it just be removed and the belt taken off.

All the best

[mr.oogieboogie]

well i fired up the car with the alternator off. no noise and no oil light. after som e reving still no noise. left it for a few mins fired it up again no issues. layed over the engine and had a look at the alternator adjuster. looks like its knackered. looks to have been wearing away on the air con compressor. so i think its ok until load is puit on it then it moves and the noise i believe is a combination of the alternator bearing straining as the tensioner is twisted and the smoke is the tensioner melting. unable to undo the 17mm bolt so i can get the tensioner off. does anyone know if its lh thread or something stupid, but its not moving. the tensioner can be moved by hand. if i cant get the tensioner off i have a plan to reinforece it with a couple of pieces of allimumin  as the top and base of it sems fine just the middle

[fjmuurling]

It is just a standard M10 bolt which is screwed into the AC Compressor bracket. The tensioner can be moved when the bolt is tight, two stepped bushes take care of this.

Your nylon adjusted strap looks knackered, replace it and use the U shaped clamping plate, this prevents the widening of the adjuster slot when tightening the bolt which passes through the slot / alternator.

[mr.oogieboogie]

Yes i know the adjuster is knackered. But the bolt is not shifting. If i cant unfo the bolt i will reinforce the adjuster if i manage to undo it i will make anew one out of stainless or alloy

[andydclements]

The original ones were steel but improved by going to plastic, so be wary of reverting to metal as Lotus will have made that decision for  a reason. The start shouldn't really be taking the load, the pivot stud of the alternator should be doing that.

[mdw]

I was just thinking is there a reason its nylon rather than steel or ally. Im sure on other cars I have had its steel.

Hows that for service, Andy was writing the answer for me just as I put in the question.

Edited November 9, 2013 by mdw

[mr.oogieboogie]

For me a 250plus bhp engine should have something a bit more substancial.maybe its to soak up vibration. But lets face it some of the bits used on the car are not what you would call quality components. And they must have realised it will distort due to the square reinforced washer they used.

[mr.oogieboogie]

well rough template made. should have it complete today and put the car back together tomorrow morning. the nylon adjuster can be flexed easily with one hand in all directions.

load oshould transfer to the bolt but if the adjuster is weak it will surley distort.

perhaps they came off a washing machine, looks that kind of quality.