Multiple problems caused by loose bottom pulley!!

[blacknight]

Well here is a story of woe...........

It all started with a rattle that sounded like a hydraulic lifter, it even seemed to go away when the car got hot! With this in mind I continued to use the car completing many fairly long journeys, always having this odd tapping when cold.

Eventually (after about 500 miles) it was still rattling, and as you can imagine I was really getting fed up.

I decided that it was time for some serious investigation. Imagine my horror, when just checking the size of the bottom pulley bolt with a spanner (I was intending to replicate the sound by turning the engine manually) it was no more than finger tight!

As you can imagine, I was suitably horrified, but proceeded to tighten up the pulley. Low and behold my strange rattle had gone and all seemed well..........

.........but this is an Elan, so nothing is that easy. Within a couple of hundred miles it developed a whole new noise, this time squealing. This turned out to be bearing issues with both the alternator and the power steering pump, possibly caused by the pulley shifting around?

I have now replaced the alternator, no easy job, and have only minor noise coming from power steering pump (air conditioning preventing me from rushing to replace as space is an issue).

I think the moral of this story is that what might sound like the tappets (I had several knowledgeable individuals try to identify the problem) could in fact be something like this!

Beware!

Iain