1993 240SX SE engine grounding noise history.

[ralphdig]

My car now 98K miles, begun developing strange noises up front around a month ago, first I can hear a high tone sporadic noise, it ended in a week.

Then sudenly the engine were making a grounding noise in the front of the engine so i thinked it was the timing chain or the clutch fan.

I stoped the car until I had time to disamble the front (pulleys, belts, admision duct,..) then the car no longer starts due lack of battery power (the light in the trunk allways is on, so it drained the battery).

So I had to start the engine power assisting the bat , and then after it started a loud clanky noise was heared (rpm related) followed by a really loud bang noise and then smoke with a rubber or oil smell was noticeable!!

Well to make it short: I disambled all belts and pulleys, and I found what was bad: the A/C compresor tensor pulley bearing was stuck! the balls were melted and pieces were impeding bearing spining, the belt cords were broken but the belt still turned around the frozen pulley then making all the smoke and odor as the rubber keep burning!

The fix was easy: I pressed the bearing out the pulley usinga bench press and replace it with a new one, I took the oportunity to replace the front oil seal and put new belts on.

Now "Negro" is fine and runing again.

I will do the timing chain guides treatment soon.