dannybgoode Posted 3 August 2025 Report Posted 3 August 2025 (edited) Awesome day at Santa Pod yesterday. No idea what was wrong with the car when I got there though. Drove the 130 miles there perfectly fine, parked up to get some tickets, tried to start the engine again to drive into the venue - it screached, it squealed, wouldn't rev properly kept cutting out and at one point even put out smoke. So I did the only sensible thing, let it cool down, tried it again and it was pretty much ok so decided to do some runs down the 1/4 mile and then drive the 130 miles back home. Didn't miss a beat. Even parked up to nip into the supermarket near home and it restarted perfectly. Managed about 16 seconds on the strip, not breaking any records but it was huge fun. My friend has a Fiesta ST which has been tuned a bit and there was about 1/100 of a second between us. Some incredible cars on show and running the 1/4 mile too. Really enjoyed it. Edited 3 August 2025 by dannybgoode 2
Old Red Celica Posted 3 August 2025 Report Posted 3 August 2025 It's always a good trip to Pod, when you get to drive home again. 1 1
dannybgoode Posted 3 August 2025 Author Report Posted 3 August 2025 2 hours ago, Old Red Celica said: It's always a good trip to Pod, when you get to drive home again. Nearly didn't happen. The engine sounded terminal when we got there. Started it up again today and again, sweet as a nut. No idea what caused it. However, the air con is no longer working so I wonder if that seized, caused the belt to slip and starved the rocker area of oil causing the clattering? Would also explain the squealing. If the alternator wasn't turning properly would explain the uneven revving/cut outs. Would explain the smoke from the slipping belt. Once it had cooled down the air con pump freed but is now dead? I have a new aux belt on order so will change that anyway to be safe. Am going to have the rocker cover off just for a quick visual - make sure everything is ok. I have new lift bolts on the way for whilst I'm in there.
_Chris_ Posted 3 August 2025 Report Posted 3 August 2025 While I'm not familiar with the gen 7 engine, I would be very very surprised if the oil pump is on the same belt as aircon. The rest is quite possible though, a seized pump on the aux belt would certainly squeal and emit smoke (did it smell of rubber ?) Similar symptoms could also be caused by something shorting in wiring that includes the aircon, eventually blowing a fuse. (Did it smell of burning plastic ?) Check for blown fuse and whether the neons (leds) still work.
dannybgoode Posted 3 August 2025 Author Report Posted 3 August 2025 1 hour ago, _Chris_ said: While I'm not familiar with the gen 7 engine, I would be very very surprised if the oil pump is on the same belt as aircon. The rest is quite possible though, a seized pump on the aux belt would certainly squeal and emit smoke (did it smell of rubber ?) Similar symptoms could also be caused by something shorting in wiring that includes the aircon, eventually blowing a fuse. (Did it smell of burning plastic ?) Check for blown fuse and whether the neons (leds) still work. Perhaps I'm wrong on the oil pump - just on a Gen 7 page on Facebook someone mentioned that the rattle sounded like an oil issue and to check the aux belt. I've also read that everything is driven off the same belt. Again, happy to be wrong. Either way, I'm 99% certain that it is the a/c compressor that seized. The Gen 7 has a fault detection system that disables the a/c clutch from engaging if it senses a fault to stop the belt stripping. Perhaps this system has been implemented as the belt is so crucial. The flashing a/c light indicates this has been activated and mine is most definitely flashing! So when I restarted the car again, this system kicked in and it worked fine from then on. So, the belt definitely needs changing and I'll have the compressor off over winter to see if it can be fixed at all. If not I'll probably just do the a/c delete unless I can find a replacement one for sensible money.
_Chris_ Posted 9 August 2025 Report Posted 9 August 2025 Looking at the drawing, it just shows the chain going round crank and cam sprockets, no extra oil pump sprocket. So - being curious I had a look in the BGB (sticky topic at the top of the gen7 forum in case you haven't found it yet). It would appear the pump is driven direct from the crank. 1
dannybgoode Posted 9 August 2025 Author Report Posted 9 August 2025 Managed to change the aux belt over the last couple of days. Getting it threaded, once I had worked out the order and fashioned a hook out of a wire coat hanger, was pretty straightforward. Working out the best way to do it caused much bruising to the backs of my hands though! Not a lot of room to work. The tensioner though. Me and it fell out big time. Even with a decent length wrench I just couldn't get it to give up enough slack and that was pulling with both arms. Bonkers stuff. Ended up jacking the tensioner arm up from underneath using a length of dowel. That works very well. But it's done and the car is running well so fingers crossed it stays that way!
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