belts and pumps done, funny story/screw up

diabloam · Apr 4, 2011

Well am away back to work on Tues so had to get pump and belts finished by weekend. Got it all back together and just threw on my old alternator and PS belt, I obviously didnt tension them enough as when started car they were squeling. Given this was annoying as I was wanting to hear if I was getting any noises from the balance and timing belts I grabbed from my bench what I thought was belt slip spray just to hush them up so could hear if any untowards noises were coming from the important belts. Anyway I slide under the car and started spraying and weirdly they seemed to make even more noise and then all of a sudden I got a big bang and a wall of flames engulfed me under the car and the spray residue was on fire on the crank pulley and bottom timing cover, lol. slapped flames out and turned car off (it was still running at this point). Turns out my belt slip spray was not what it seemed as it was actually a tin of carb cleaner that just happend to be in a very similar yellow coloured tin. Anyway once my heart settled down I got two new belts in town and changed them out (took timing covers off again just to make sure there was no damage under the cover, luckily belts seemed fine and tension felt same as what I had set it to).

Anyway car pulling fine, I didnt go far in it so never really got it very warm, but had a steady stream of coolant coming out bleed screw, is it safe to assume its bled ok? I hear they can be a pain to get all the air out, whats everybodies favourite method? Thanks all, I managed to keep my eyebrows, lol

Want to say a big thanks to Sulzeruk for his support on this job, cheers man, much appreciated!

Diver944 · Apr 4, 2011

Let's hear it for Alex, the only fire eating belt changer that I know on the forum [

]

Glad to hear it was no worse than that

frankydoom · Apr 4, 2011

only fire eating belt changer

[

][8|][

][

]

vincematthews · Apr 4, 2011

There's a switch and a couple of sliders inside that works the heating system [

][

]

diabloam · Apr 5, 2011

lol, that quote from Einstein is well appropriate! Not my finest hour! but by brows escaped unscathed and no apparent damage to the car so not too bad. Just going to leave car sitting in garage whilst I am away and maybe any air in the system will be round the bleed screw magically when I am back, hoping so!

Sandspider · Apr 5, 2011

Just take it for a drive, park it (with the nose slightly raised if possible), turn the heater control to full, turn off the engine and crack open the bleed screw.

You may need to do this a couple of times, but you should get just water coming out of the bleed screw, and the level in the header tank shouldn't drop as the air gaps in the system are filled. If you keep having problems it may be worth trying a pressure bleeder, or taking it to a garage with one.