Scottish Elises

Pulling into my street tonight and the battery light started flashing. Also suddenly noticed an expensive sounding metal-on-metal noise from the engine bay... Don't know if the noise had just started as I chose this afternoon to fit a stereo and haven't been listening for anything else. Doh!
Stopped the car and it seems to be running okay (i.e on all cylinders) but continues to make this really unpleaseant sound. And the battery light keeps flashing. I turned it off and pushed it into the garage. A bottle of wine later I ready to start thinking about what the hell happened...

Does anyone know if the Stack has built in error codes or is the flashing just an intermittant flicker that I didn't look at long enough to see a pattern? And what could be causing the noise? I'd say it sounded terminal if the engine wasn't running so smoothly...

Can anybody shed some light? I'm supposed to be driving to the South of England on Thursday but that's looking decidedly dodgy just now...

TIA

Matt

Alternator?

Untechnical answer.
Ask on SELOC Matt.

G

Already posted on SELOC...

Hopefully it is just the alternator eating itself. Looks like it won't be a lazy Sunday afterall...

It turns out that the crank shaft pulley for the alternator belt has worked loose - I don't know why. Tried tightening it up but after a couple of miles it worked loose again. The free play in the pulley is surprising and there doesn't seem to be a positive location for it to sit before tightening the bolt. I need to take it off to check if all is well but access is a pig and trying to buy a 7/8" ring spanner on a Sunday afternoon is a lost cause... Could be that there is a locating pin sheared off or something?
I guess this part will be the same on any 1.8 K-series if I need to change it out quick? Got a mate at Town and County Land Rover and the Freelander runs the 1.8 K...

Not sure about a locating pin... the deal with the pulley bolt is that it has to be loctited and done up FFFT. 220lb/ft I seem to remember, which is virtually impossible with the engine in situ, unless you grind down a socket to fit and use a scaff pole over the end of the torque wrench with several really big blokes swinging off it....

This could be pretty bad. Got the pulley off and the woodruff key has sheared off. My understanding is that along with the torsional friction from the bolt being tightened to 220Nm (or whatever), the torque of the crank is partially transmitted to the alterntor through this keyway. Without it, the pulley will loosen again and again until I get unlucky and the cam belt slips off. Then I lose the lot.

From what I gather about the design of the 'K', dropping the sump to access the crank can only be done by removing the head bolts. So its an engine out, bottom end rebuild and new head gasket. For the sake of the b'stard alternator.

Anyone want to buy a ticket for the SIDC trackday on the 25th???

Speak to Dave Andrews about it - you should be able to drop the crank in situ... He'll tell you how, if it can be done.

http://www.dvapower.com/

Dave@DVApower.com

My Dad had the same problem with a rover 214 but managed to put a new kwy in without too much bother. No engine out etc

The key isn't removeable but the the cam belt pulley that it extrudes from is - just ordered a new pulley for £7.50. According to Dave @ DVA, the cog is replaceable in situ, so this story may have a happy ending after all...if I can get it off, and if the crank hasn't been damaged, and if I get the timing right afterwards...

Crossed fingers, toes, eyes etc...