noise from pulley, normal or not?

[vw_golf_nutter]

hi all,
my mk3 2.0 cabrio was running nicely before it went in for a cambelt kit. when i picked it up from the garage i drove it a 700 mile round trip and noticed when i got it on the motorway it was making a pulsing kind of feel that was felt through the accelerator pedal, it doesnt do this at lower speeds, just when i was on the motorway. i got to where i was going and had a look at the car to see if i could see the problem. I noticed the pulley right at the bottom was wobbling and the belt was squeaking a little.
this is what it was like:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v679/vw_golf_nutter/?action=view&current=1A80C3E6-07F9-4914-9AA4-787F96463B79-11642-0000088EE8BE9D6B.mp4

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v679/vw_golf_nutter/?action=view&current=57845BCF-BDDD-482D-A8CD-8C922A919E41-11642-0000088DE7AC546B.mp4

I had no choice but to try and get it home so stayed around 60 on the motorway at low revs and took it straight back to the garage the next day. They said that they couldnt see what the problem was as its pretty normal for that pulley to wobble. They checked it and it wasnt loose so said its fine. They also said the belt was only squeaking slightly when the car is cold and its ok when its warm. They put a new fan belt on it for me free of charge to see if that solved it and told me to drive it for a few days and pop back if im not happy.

Well im not happy! The car squeaks when its cold and when its warm it ticks where the pulley is wobbling. Im just hoping if the pulley is changed this will solve it.

My issue is that my car was running perfect before it went in for a cambelt. They have to take this pulley and belt off to do the cambelt so part of me wonders if they have done this.
I have to say I didnt notice it when I first picked up the car, just when i got on the motorway but thats not to say it wasnt put on wrong or whatever and it took it 30 miles to make a noise.
I dont really believe that it just happened to warp the pulley for no reason whilst I was driving it.

What would you do in this situation? I dont want to go and kick off at the garage as I have been using them for 11 years now and they guy has done me a lot of favours in the past however I am a bit annoyed he is trying to make me accept my car now sounds like a clapped out banger!

[grayboots]

Hi,
You need to go back to the garage and ask them to have another look, you dont need to kick off about this, anybody can make a mistake. If they are not interested they arent worth dealing with.....

grayboots

[Millhausen]

Hi,
I have the exact same problem/noise. Mine was running perfectly fine before changing the 2 belts that aren't timing related. I however did them myself. I believe I tightened the belt too tight, and have driven for too long with them tight so have 'knackered' a bearing somewhere.
This is all just going off guess work but I have tried adjusting the tension on both belts and although the noise has changed slightly, it is still there.
I am starting to think that it's the alternator, as I removed the belt and and had a little spin with my hand to see if there was any grinding, I'm not sure if there was enough to make such a noise but the belt spins the pulley a lot faster than I would ever be able to do with my hands.
If anyone has experienced this and found the culprit, please share as I am about to start a process of elimination so you could save me a lot of time/money/patience.

Cheers!
Carl

[thai-wronghorse]

Do you know if they changed the cambelt tensioner and if they did was it set correctly if it was a manual one? If its too tight it will be noisy. 
What about the water pump,  have you run the engine with the belt disconnected from that as mine currently makes a hell of a  noise due to worn bearings.

[MereKat]

Mine sounds like that, well did...now it's far worse! My power steering pump is knackered though, and the outer pulley has a slightly bent lip. Does it make more noise when turning at all?

I'd say take it back to the garage first, if no joy get under the car and look at the belts. There should be around 5mm of movement if you 'pinch' the belt on itself (ie try to get the belt to touch itself in the middle between pulleys). If there's very little movement, could need slight adjustment. It may simply be the guys that changed the cambelt have tightened everything up a little too tight, which is putting unnecessary strain on the pump and belts.

[Millhausen]

Yes, I myself tightened the belt too much, I'm sure of it. It was certainly further away than the original starting position of the power steering pump.
I've since slackened it off and the result was a slight change in noise. I'll go slacken some more, but as I have a 70 odd mile round trip to work I may have wrecked a bearing/the pump. I'm happy it's my fault, as you learn from mistakes, but would be better if I could have a garage rectify it. Ha ha.
I guess I answered my own question up top then. I typed water pump before but I'm pretty sure I meant power steering pump. It's the smaller of the 3 belts so has to be power steering.
If slackening off more doesn't sort it I'll get hunting for a new (read: cheap, used) pump.

[AudiA8Quattro]

From the video, it doesn't look like the pulley is wobbling (although it is hard to see).
The pulley could of been damaged when removing, if it isn't running true..