Was tracking down a clicking noise from under the hood of my '14 4S with 72K miles.

Clicking noise was most noticeable at high idle when first started but I could still hear it once the idle slowed down. You could not hear anything abnormal with the hood closed from issued the car. From in front of the car with hood closed could hear extra noise.

I know these DI (direct injection) engines make a little more noise, but it seemed the noise had increased over the past few months.

Surprised to find the amount of wear in 2 of the 3 idler pulleys. The tensioner pulley was in the best shape but it still had a fair amount of axial play. The other two were not in great shape as far as play was concerned. The belt was in good shape (no visible cracks) There were no squeal type noises at all.

Attached video files show the amount of play.

As part of the ppm, I went ahead and changed out all three pulleys, the tensioner, and the belt. (I plan on keeping the car quite a while). Job is fairly straight forward. You do have to disconnect one vacuum line and one water hose stand-off to get the belt out and back on. Keeping the old belt as a spare.

Changing the pulleys out did eliminate the noises I was trying to remove. Back to a normal DI sounding engine.

Just wanted to give some feedback on what may be the limited life of these pulleys.

Chuck

 

thanks Chuck, I'm assuming since you posted this that changing those out fixed the noise

 

It did --- I should have put that in the original post. I'll edit to update.

 

Really surprised with the amount of play. Good to know, thanks

 

I'm having an issue with chirping noises from the serpentine belt after the engine is warmed up after about 10min of driving. The chirps quiet down and stop when I accelerate but comes back when the engine is idling. I have already replaced the belt since the old one was visibly worn and cracking and hoped it was the problem but the chirps are still here. Next, I removed the belt and spun/inspected each pulley for noises or wobbliness, no luck. Then finally I took off the belt and started the engine for just a few seconds and found that the chirps were still there. Does mean the crankshaft pulley is the problem or something worse? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Brian

 

Can you get a recording to post of the sound? Would be helpful in remote diagnosis to hear sounds.

Good news that since the sound is present without the belt, you can eliminate any belt driven item. (Water pump, power steering, alternator, A/C compressor)

These engines do not appear to be particulary "silent" due to the nature of having direct injection as well as a lot of extra items being rotated inside the valve covers (vario-cam).

 

Finally got a clip of the noise.

 

I'm not a mechanic, but the sound seems to be external or outside the engine. I think that's good news.