Esprit S4 Engine rattle/noise/tapping

[Sparky]

That top video.  Wow.  Pulley off, stat!  I couldn't sleep, waiting days to get that looked at.

[Mike6]

I would suspect that the locating woodruf on the pulley housing is damaged, missing or not correctly located. Cannot see any other reason for that play other than say severe endfloat but you wouldnt really get it to move as easily as your vid shows. 

[AdamDE]

Surely it shouldn't be your bank manager opening the champagne? Can you not just trailer the car back to where you bought it and get them to fix it?

 

whats your oil pressure looking like ? If you do have a impending bottom end failure I really wouldn't run the car could make things a lot worse.You don't want the dealer saying anything that could infer you made matters worse.

 

The champagne would depend on them give me a nice loan ;-) I'm sure it won't come to that though!

Oil pressure seems fine on startup and whilst running.

 

I watched your videos, and I can't imagine why a V-drive pulley should have any of that kind of movement on it at all. Requires further investigation, that one!

 

Yeah I also can't imagine why it has any play at all, something's clearly amiss here so that's my first thing to look at. If I get time this week I'll take the nut/washer off to see if there's anything obvious. If not, Lotus can have the pulleys off in a week's time. I'd rather it be pulley related than big end related so will stay optimistic for now!

[Vulcan Grey]

Looks like either the bolt bottomed out before clamping the pulley, leaving it loose, so it wore out the bore. Or the aluminum is fractured or just plain wobbled out. I'm guessing the crank is fine...

[Chillidoggy]

I'm going with "no problem with the bottom ends". It's something else. We need to go to Germany to find out. Do they have beer, by any chance?

[Jacques]

get it fixed in Germany if need be, and drive to Denmark, to get some propper beer

 

Sure, they do.

 

Cheers,

Jcaques.

[AdamDE]

Germany certainly does have beer, the best! I'm converted and try and find German beer wherever I am in the world. If there's none left when you get here that's probably my fault. Having just got back from Denmark though I can't say I came across the best beer over there? Am I missing something?

Make sure you all have the beer AFTER you've driven round some great roads first.

[CHANGES]

Hi Adam , After our conversation i looked at those video's . Well i have never seen that before, 

I would go with Travis and say front pulley is fractured. In fact i bet its only the belts holding it

in place. it is Still making a lot of noise for a fracture , unless the outer pulley part has oscillated

to point where the key way has worn in that  section of the pulley and is tapping on the key.

In that case you may need a new key as well as a pulley..

Hopefully this will be the route of the cranky noise and an easy fix...

 

 

[ramjet]

As a fitter machinist by trade, I can tell you right now that is definitely not right. Don't run the car anymore. We have enough videos mate.

Get the belts and that pulley off so we can see what else is going on. As Travis said, it is either fractured or flogged out. In the second video, I swear that some of the loudest knocks are when you can actually see the pulley position change.

Also, I would speak to your dealer (if you can be bothered) and see if they will do a deal with a dealer local to you for warranty. You never know.

 

Great videos showing this problem BTW.

[AdamDE]

As a fitter machinist by trade, I can tell you right now that is definitely not right. Don't run the car anymore. We have enough videos mate.

Get the belts and that pulley off so we can see what else is going on. As Travis said, it is either fractured or flogged out. In the second video, I swear that some of the loudest knocks are when you can actually see the pulley position change.

Also, I would speak to your dealer (if you can be bothered) and see if they will do a deal with a dealer local to you for warranty. You never know.

 

Great videos showing this problem BTW.

 

Yup, don't worry. The car is staying put now until it goes in to Lotus. I'll try and source a pulley and woodruff key before then. I just hope it hasn't damaged the end of the crank as it appears that's also possible. I may not get chance to get the belts off before then, but I'll give it a go (annoyingly it's not possible to jack up the car at home as it's a shared garage). If not I'll get them to take a photo of any damage.

 

If the bolt bottomed out before clamping the pulley, then I presume the wrong bolt has been put in or something has gotten in there.

 

Thank you all for your help so far.

[Vulcan Grey]

They could have lost the original thick tapered washer, which could prevent the bolt from clamping the pulley.

[AdamDE]

The tapered washer is definitely still in place, I checked it before attempting to torque the bolt (new pulley pre-emptively ordered).

[AdamDE]

Hi guys,
Sorry it took me a while to update. Had the pulley off and it did turn out to be the pulley itself and not the crankshaft, there was a large chunk missing! Anyway, pulley has been replaced and I've driven 2000 happy miles since. Thanks for your help. 

[Vulcan Grey]

That would do it...!!!

[Shanesprit]

Your a lucky boy

I have only ever seen this once before, on a diesel Citroen.

Crank was damaged well.

[ragingfool35]

one thing still bothers me, the pulley should still not wobble when sandwiched between the crank bolt washer and the timing pulley?