Lesabre rattling noise

Didn’t add anything to anything.

Alternator had its own pulley. Didn’t switch. Also didn’t switch tensioner pulley.

When my truck’s water pump is on the fritz it starts making weird clicking and grinding noises, but no other obvious symptoms until eventually it starts to leak. But it’s pretty easy to tell where the sound is coming from just by listening here and there while the engine idles. The noise is the result of the impeller contacting hard-water deposits inside the water pump. In some cases the deposits are loose, not fixed to the water pump casting. I’m guess those must have originated from somewhere else in the cooling system and lodged in the pump.

New or used tensioner??

And has the belt been replaced with a new one yet, sorry don’t remember?..

It was a good used tensioner. The belt is like new.

But did your truck onky do it in idle onky when in gear for the most part

Tensioners can be working OK until you interrupt them, like replacing the belt, I have had and have seen many belts being replaced when no signs of a bad tensioner, but right after it is disturbed from removing and installing a belt (new or not) now the tensioner fails and or is too weak to keep proper tension on the belt, and it can cause tensioner knock/rattle…

Why was the “good used” tensioner removed/replaced from the vehicle, You may have put another failing tensioner on your car and now think it is not a tensioner issue…

It would be nice if you could make a video of the tensioner while making the noise…

I can make a phone video but it won’t let me upload it to here

In my opinion of the odds of both tensioners bad is very unlikely.

It was replaced because I have no idea what or where noise is from. It is hard to tell.

Is there a way to test the crankshaft pulley.

I’ll see if I can find a service place who would give free estimates if they can figure it out.

I’ve never done it, but I think you have to convert your phone vdo to a u-tube vdo, then you can post the link of the u-tube vdo here for all to see.

No, I could hear the failing -water pump noise at most rpms, but it was subtle, & most noticeable when the truck was parked and I could listen to it standing in front of the truck with the hood opened. When I use a home-brew stethoscope to listen, even easier to hear.

It just started to leak antifreeze. It is not leaking from the bracket. I will be pulling the water pump soon.

Might be leaking from the elbows at the tensioner… very common…

I can see all 4 spots on the tensioner and none have water leaking out.

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Pulled water pump today. It looks brand new. Fins look good and there is no play in the pump. The fact it has permatex on the gasket makes me think I may have changed this a few years back. My memory is shit for remembering things like that.

I have to go to town tomorrow. I’ll show to someone in the service business.

Perhaps it was leaking from the bracket. Sure didn’t seem like it.

What part are you calling a bracket that could be leaking??

I use a simple manila folder with two-hole prongs to keep track of this sort of stuff. Keeps the paperwork in time-order. Each time I do a diy’er service, I punch the holes & put the parts & supplies receipts in the folder over the prongs, taped as required to a sheet of paper noted with the date, odometer miles, and a brief description of what I did. Doesn’t take much time and has proven to be very helpful.

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I meant to say tensioner.

Belts like new and had water pump confirmed to be perfectly good. Guy was super nice. Gave me a free gasket for it and some additional o rings for the plastic elbow.

So I guess it’s down to the power steering pump ac pump or crank shaft pulley. The ps and ac pump pulleys look good. So?

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I found this interesting post from a decade ago. Same situation he never did figure it out.

This is hitting a record for the most tiresome thread ever.

Buy a new belt and tensioner. Make sure they’re from either Gates or Dayco. Install them. It’s not all that expensive. By now the amount of time you’ve blown fussing with this that and the other thing is far more “expensive” - you know, if time is money. Which it usually is.

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Another point of view. This thread can go on indefinitely as far as I’m concerned. The seemingly impossible to solve car problems are the most interesting topics imho.

And the OP never did replace the tensioner, and a rod bearing, wrist pin, piston slap, main bearing will make the noise with or without the belt on…
With the belt off and the noise goes away, that leaves you with the belt tensioner, water pump, AC compressor and pulley, alternator, and the PS pump, and using 20+ yo parts to test with, is not always a good idea as they could be bad also…

I would have rolled the dice and put a tensioner on it way before the PS pump and then remove the oil pans and rod caps or whatever looking for a failed part…

There is nothing “seemingly impossible” here. It was taken to a shop. The shop said the tensioner was bad, for gosh sakes. I’ll hold out to be shown wrong. But the dude needs a new tensioner. And even if I’m wrong, not replacing a belt tensioner on a 26 yr old car is like not replacing spark plugs on a 26 yr old car. Why not?

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I have no objection to the OP replacing the tensioner as part of the diagnostic process. Sometimes replacing a suspect part is the most pragmatic method, esp for a diy’er who doesn’t have the same set of diagnostic tools the pro mechanic has; e.g.a manufacturer’s scan tool w/ mode 6 data. I’m just saying for this particular thread, it doesn’t bother me if the OP doesn’t want to replace the tensioner until they first prove the tensioner is faulty. It’s the OP’s car and time schedule, and are in the best position to make that call. In the meantime an interesting thread remains.

Hot Rod magazine used to run an article most every month titled “Hot Rod to the Rescue”. They’d diagnose and repair a reader’s classic car. The reader would apply in writing for this mostly free service. They’d focus on cars which had a persistent and seemingly impossible to solve problem. The reason I enjoyed that article is they would never be satisfied by “good enough”. They would keep working on the problem until they found the actual cause. Sometimes this involved taking the engine completely apart. Made for interesting and informative reading. The magazine unfortunately discontinued that article presumably for cost reasons, and later the magazine discontinued monthly publication.