Death Rattle

While cruising, the car started making a worrying death rattle under the hood. I stopped and determined, much to my relief, that it was not coming from the engine, but somewhere forward of it.

So, I quickly drove home to diagnose it with a makeshift "mechanic's stetoscope". As you know, the principle is, you take a wooden or metallic rod, place one end to your ear, and the other to suspected sources of noise... The rod will conduct sound and make it much easier to pinpoint problems.

Sure enough, it wasn't the valve train or any of the pistons. The noise seemed to come from the auxiliaries but it was none of the top ones, which I could reach (alternator and power steering). Therefore it had to be the a/c compressor. Since it had no refridgerant in it anyway, I took off the v-belt and voila:

Besides the belt being shot, the tensioner wheel had some slop, so both will have to be replaced, when I gain inspiration to fix up the a/c. Haven't needed it so far, these last 2 years...