Strange things happening!?!?!

[BigBlue90]

Well here goes as this is starting to make my head hurt.

Not very mechanically minded however can normally work things out.

'M' reg 300tdi disco es with air con.

Driving home last night squealing from the engine rev counter gives up the ghost and the power steering goes heavy. squealing stops but still heavy on the steering. Pull up outside the house thinking one of the belts has gone and then leave it till this morning to have a look.

When i open the bonnet all looks good. belts are still there and both still tight. Thinner belt which goes around the air con unit is a bit worn but still ok. There is still a slight squeak from the belt.

When i turn the air con to on the bigger belt which i think is the important one slowly grinds to a halt. Very quickly turn the air con back of and it returns to normal.

Am I right in thinking that the rev counter is run off the alternator? The battery charges fine and the battery light does not come on which i thought would indicate that the alternator is broken.

The power steering works when i tested it this morning and the rev counter moves a little but seems to get before 1000 rpm.

I had a search around and some of the things suggested on other forums and on here may be bearings in the pulleys. Is there any way of telling which one or what is causing all of this.

Does anyone else have any other simple options or suggestions before I am forced to send it to a garage on Monday. Or am I missing somehting very obvious?

Thanks in advance.

Stephen :(

[Dr Evil]

Take the belts off and check each pulley in turn to see if one of them is tight.

[peasey]

now forgive me if im wrong as im no expert,it sounds to me like the bearing in the air con compressor is on the way out or maybe the compressor its self,thats where i would start looking mate.have you tried removing the belt and spinning the pulleys by hand? i would have thought that you would feel if they were a bit notchey to turn. the air con one should spin easy when its turned off and i reckon that its slowing the belt down enough to stop the power steering genarating enough pressure and the rev counter is i think run from the alternator and also being slowed.hope this helps you mate and as mentioned at the begining of my post im no expert but im sure one or two other fellas on here will point you in the right direction if im wrong :lol:

[Chris Putt]

Had the same with my Disco, the alternator belt, whilst appearing to be tight was quite worn and was able to slip because It had become narrower than it shouldve been. so whilst appearing okish- it wasnt, and intermittently lost PAS, Revcounter, and occasionaly got the charge light on for seemingly no reason.

although mine was tight it was possible with two pairs of hands to actually slip it around the pulleys as it had narrowed so much.

Might be worth looking into?

Chris

[lee celtic]

Take off all the belts and check the crank pully if the bolt is loose or if the woodruf key is broken the pully will spin but the crank won't it will not drive all the other belts thus loosing power steering and charging on higher revs this happened to me three weeks ago  :shock:

see http://forums.mud-club.com/viewtopic.php?t=50034

hope it helps :D

[BigBlue90]

Cheers for all the advice.

Will check them out in the morning and let you know how it goes. :)

[Range Rover Blues]

One thing to bear in mnind, when you turn on the air conn, the fans come on aswell.  I know they are bigger but on Blue the Kenlowes will wreck a Vee belt in a matter of hours if it's not perfectly tight, they draw so much current from the alternator.