Hi everyone,

I have a 53 plate fabia SDi which i love to bits but its has a slight problem which isnt affecting the drive just gives me the sense of impending damage.

Everytime on start up from cold there is a strange noise coming from the area around the cambelt. however after about 1 or 2 miles the noise goes and does return again until the engine is left to cool and the same thing. happens.

I can only describe the noise as sounding like a screeching belt. Its not a constant noise and it speeds up with engine speed as well. has anyone else experienced this? or is it something obvious?

please help

Also just had a thought i did have a problem recently with a leaking coolant system that had pretty much emptied itself slowly over a long time and the noise started occuring about the same time. could this have caused the damage? as the water pump is in this area?

another thought having done a few searches i have remembered when turning the steering wheel with the lights they dim a bit? could it be the battery or alternator on its way out?

Starting from cold takes alot out of the battery. I suspect that the increased loading on the alternator is causing the auxiliary belt to make a bit of noise.

Would that suggest a new belt, alternator or battery?

or all the above?

Sorry to drag this out of the deep dark depths, but this noise is now happenining constantly and the PAS light comes on every now and again, but becoming more frequent in recent times.

Is this indicative of the battery slowly giving up the ghost? or is it something less obvious. i have read somewhere about a corroded earth lead on the alternator and something else about a wiring loom having a bath to lie in?

I think you have two issues here, firstly the "screeching belt" this is because the alternator belt is not tight enough and is slipping.

This in turn will be putting less power back into the battery, which might be causing PAS light to come on.

The first thing i would do is get the belt tightened and then get the battery checked out - anyone who sells car batteries should have the equipment to check your old battery - Halfords, independent garage, or if you really have to the dealer.

ah ok then, so with regards to tightening the belt is there a pulley that needs tightening? (or should i just go buy a haynes?)

ah ok then, so with regards to tightening the belt is there a pulley that needs tightening? (or should i just go buy a haynes?)

I'd say do a "two for oner" and trot along (with car) to Halfords and buy a Haynes manual (can't go wrong as you sound like you and the car need it) and ask them to check your battery while you are there - but drive around a bit and get it charged up first so that the squealing has stopped first. The electric power steering "stuff" is at the other side of the car. Also wrt your earlier posting about needing to top-up engine coolant - did you ever get to the route cause of that problem? You might have the dreaded "broken excitation wire" which is giving the battery grief so that its not in good shape after a cold start, but demands a lot out of the alternator when the revs are raised high enough for it to deliver a charging current.

Yeah the coolant was leaking out of the plastic housing for the temperature sensor. There was a rubber o-ring seal that was apparently vacant. so i put a new o-ring in and it was fine after that.

Looks like i'll be heading down to halfords at lunchtime then.

The dreaded broken wire though..... sounds like scarey stuff. where is this and can i check its not broken?

I'm back! been to halfords and got them to check the battery and they said its ok so it must be the belt. Now I have also splashed out and got myself a haynes manual. However I cant find anything in there about adjusting the aux belt. Only about replacing it. I assume its to do with the tensioner pulley but how do i make the tensioning pulley...... tension more? (i know that makes no sense, didnt know how else to word it)

Ps dont know if it makes a difference but it has air con.

The tensioner determines the belt tension so if the belt is slipping either the tensioner is shot, or something is causing resistance of rotation. Check alternator bearings free to rotate, and air con pulley free to rotate (both with the belt removed.) Check the belt for signs of glazing on the rubber grooves.

If alternator and air con pump are OK I would replace the belt and tensioner.

Right! I had some spare time at the weekend to i took it upon myself to change the belt and see if that solved it, but it didnt. shame.

However while i had the belt off I tried turning the pulleys and they all turned nicely, smoothly and quietly (except the crank pulley obviously). However the Pulley on the air conditioning pump made a slight "grating" noise and didnt turn as freely as the other pulleys. Could this be the problem?

If so i have another question. As money is very tight at the moment (ie can barely afford to put diesel in it!) I would like to know if i could just fit a belt from a car without air conditioning and leave the pump out of it for now? or am I just being stupid?

The air con compressor pulley has a set of shear studs that are designed to shear off should the compressor seize. e.g. it does not have the usual magnetic clutch. Usually happens if air con coolant (which carries the lubrication oil) has dropped too low.

Interesting idea about fitting a smaller belt and leaving the air con out of the loop. Not all cars had air con so I guess it might be possible.

Or perhaps the compressor is just dry and needs the system re-filled with R135a gas.

Kwik Fit will do this for about £49 (takes an hour as they purge the system and take it down to deep vacuum, before recharging)

Ok cheers for your help, its booked in to get the gas re-filled. and then failing that its off to the garage!

Have another look at the alternator pulley. I had a screech from the same area on my diesel Felicia a couple of years back. It was a bit more metallic than a screeching belt and happened when running cold. The garage tracked it to the alternator pulley wheel clutch which had almost imperceptible play in it. They found it straight off as they'd been weeks trying to diagnose it in another car prior to mine.

I'll have a look at that on Thursday!

cheers for your help

Ok been a while but the legend continues! think we're getting towards the end though! Last week i tried a few more things at the same time. I took the battery out and put it on charge over night, and at the same time topped up the power steering fluid.

Put it all back together and started the car in the morning with the newly charged battery and nothing changed same schreeching belt, however after driving for a minute it went away! and then after work it made no noise on start up so i thought we were in the clear then!! happy days. But the following day the noise came back but not as bad as before. Thinking it was more likely to be the power steering fluid i tried topping that up again but it hadnt change level (thank god).

Would this then suggest to everyone else like it did to me that it needs a new battery?

I just wanted to double check with everyone here....

Well i've found the fault at long last! its the alternator. The pulley is squeaking under load. When i spray WD40 on the pulley the noise goes away. The alternator is still charging, is there a way of changing just the pulley or is it integral to the alternator?