C5 2.2 HDi - Strange Noise??

[corsehf]

Hi, Whilst my car was ticking over on the drive yesterday, there was a sudden strange flapping noise from the engine similar to what i thought was a belt shredding!
I quickly turned off the engine and had a look. Alternator belt was fine so started to remove the top cover of the cam belt when i notice a narrow (1/2 inch wide & 5 inches long) strip of thin metal that appeared to have been chewed up by what i assume the alternator belt? and thrown into the void near the bottom of the expansion bottle.
Does anyone recognise this strip of metal?, where has it come from?, is it important? or is it something i have picked up off the road but bearing in mind that i have the engine cover in place.

Any ideas??

[RichardW]

Sounds like the crank pulley breaking up.... best have a look at it and see if you can see a shiny line around it where it has shed the metal splinter.

[Lighty]

Definitely the crank pulley

[Bick]

+1 on crank pulley - very common

[waynedance]

Got to stop reading these posts gets me paranoid. Will be listening for noises now.

[corsehf]

Have a new one on order, the pulley on my previous C5 just broke up in one go but this one is obviously taking its time.
Cheers.

[Sulla]

The crankshaft pully in my Xantia gave me plenty of warning noises (loud clacking when idle), never heard any shredding noises though.