Sorted my fan belt warning sensor
01-25-2009, 02:26 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Sorted my fan belt warning sensor
Hello chaps
I couldn't find much on here regarding the fan belt sensor, so I thought I'd post this.
My dashboard warning light would occasionally come on to warn me that the belt had broken. On inspection, it obviously hadn't. To start with I removed the sensor from the circuit and shorted the two pins on the lead which connected to it.
This put out the warning light on the dash, confirming it was a faulty sensor.
The sensor is only held by one 5mm hex bolt so removing it is quite simple (if a little awkward due to limited space).
Once off the car I opened it up to find the continual reciprocating movement of the wheel arm had caused wear to both the plastic arm and the micro switch roller. Rather than disturb the original micro switch, which is bonded on to the case, I simply built up a few layers of epoxy resin on the plastic arm and sanded it smooth when dry and applied some grease.
Just fitted it all back on and it works like a charm.
Now, if some one would create a photodetector version which had no moving parts (i.e no squeeky wheel pushing on your belt, no microswitch to wear out) that would be very cool. You know... Photodiode on one side of the belt little led on the other.
Rich
I couldn't find much on here regarding the fan belt sensor, so I thought I'd post this.
My dashboard warning light would occasionally come on to warn me that the belt had broken. On inspection, it obviously hadn't. To start with I removed the sensor from the circuit and shorted the two pins on the lead which connected to it.
This put out the warning light on the dash, confirming it was a faulty sensor.
The sensor is only held by one 5mm hex bolt so removing it is quite simple (if a little awkward due to limited space).
Once off the car I opened it up to find the continual reciprocating movement of the wheel arm had caused wear to both the plastic arm and the micro switch roller. Rather than disturb the original micro switch, which is bonded on to the case, I simply built up a few layers of epoxy resin on the plastic arm and sanded it smooth when dry and applied some grease.
Just fitted it all back on and it works like a charm.
Now, if some one would create a photodetector version which had no moving parts (i.e no squeeky wheel pushing on your belt, no microswitch to wear out) that would be very cool. You know... Photodiode on one side of the belt little led on the other.
Rich
01-25-2009, 06:21 PM
#3
I did virtually the exact same thing - Without removing anything - I put one drop of a hard epoxy (BA4/LCA5) on the plastic part (with proper spacers inserted until everything cured). This seems to be much tougher than the plastic. No problem in the past 50k miles.
As they say "great minds think alike"!
As they say "great minds think alike"!
