Saturday night our 09 Accent started making a popping sound under the hood. When I investigated the crank pulley was flashing bright blue at about a 1 second interval, there was a spark coming from the main serpentine and the pulley itself. I checked for obstruction and there is none. And to add mystery, the spark subsidies as the car warms, so when I take it to the dealer it's long gone by the time I get there.



I did look this up and found several other instances of alphas producing this, but the going answer is to replace the belt. That belt has less than 5k on it and looks brand new. Any ideas? This is a new one for me.

 

If I remember right it was a physical issue with some belts that you could solve with a new belt. I'm guessing that a couple ground straps could also solve this, but I don't know if anyone has tried this.

 

If the belt is generating static as it turns, that could do it. That's pretty crazy though.

 

It's either that or the harmonic balancer. This was a 3rd possibility we came up with. If the outer metal pulley is rotating around the rubber mount it can do the same. I've marked the pulley and inner piece too see if they shift after a couple of cold starts

 

Seems like you'd have bigger problems if the parts of the pulley were rotating relative to each other.

 

The thought was if there is even a fraction of a mm of movement that it could build up static under that kind of pressure. It's honestly something I can easily test before throwing a belt at the issue. Especially being 15k out of the next timing belt which basically means next summer the way we drive.