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Monday, July 11, 2011

2004 Nissan Frontier Clanging Noise

Above Picture - Alternator Pulley on right broken free of Crankshaft Pulley Assembly on a 2004 Nissan Frontier with 3.3L engine, causing a clanging sound when started.


Today’s post will be another chapter in automotive inside baseball. A customer brought in a 2004 Nissan Frontier with 3.3L V6 engine. He thought the Nissan’s belts were bad because he got a clanking noise from the drive belt area. I had him demonstrate the noise. The clanking originated at the crankshaft main pulley assembly. The rear most pulley that drives the alternator had broken free of the pulley assembly which drives three different belts, causing a clanking sound when the loose pulley wobbled and touched against the pulley in front of it. A thin neoprene type insulator ring binds the pulley to the crankshaft pulley assembly. When it breaks free it can damage the engine’s front case if the noise is ignored. I doubt this is a pattern failure because I had to special order the pulley assembly. I thought it best to illustrate this particular problem in case there are more of these out there.

6 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Is this in English? :)

BernardL said...

LOL! Yeah, it's a new dialect I'm workin' on, Charles. :)

Anonymous said...

happened to mine recently. getting it off was a challenge because it was so worn, the sides of it would break off when using a pulley puller. Had to go with the ol' reliable crowbar to get it off.

BernardL said...

I'm glad you were able to get it off without damaging anything else, Anon.

Unknown said...

so it shouldn't be 2 pc??

BernardL said...

No Z Rob... it should not. If there are two pieces, it's causing a lot of noise.