Ok ever since I bought my car over a year ago I have had the same problem and have spent in the region of £400 trying to fix it with no luck.

It happens eveytime I start the car from cold (left for more than about 5 hours) the auxilary drive belt with the crank pulley, tensioner, alternator and aircon compressor on it makes a constant 'woosh woosh woosh woosh' noise for the first 5 minutes. If I spray WD40 on the alternator pulley the noise goes away straight away. Sometimes it will make the power steering light come on but thats once in a blue moon.

I have tried to fix this by changing the belt, alternator and pulley, air con pump, tensioning pulley and battery. All of which have made no difference. I have also cleaned up all the connections on the charging system as well as checking the power steering fluid was topped up.

Please help me as i am at the end of the tether with my car and it is really stopping me enjoying what is otherwise a brilliant car!:confused:

If it helps, my car is a 1.9 sdi ,year 2000.When I first got my car ,it used to screech after its first start in the morning. It went after about 5 minutes .I put it down to the belt slipping on the alternator pulley ,because the alternator was having to give maximum current (about 50 to 100 amps) ,to recharge the semi flattened battery. I wonder if your battery is faulty ,by losing its capacity,making the Alternator work harder ,causing the noise? If you know somebody with a clamp on DC Ammeter (not cheap!) who could find out what the Alternator is supplying,and when? I would think WD40 which is a lubricant would make it worse,by letting the belt slip more ,stopping the noise,until it dried out. You can get a Drive Belt aerosol ,which is designed to increase the friction between the belt and the pulleys.

See i thought WD40 would have made it worse aswell, but will try the aerosol. for a couple of quid its worth it. Some finer detail which I missed now i think about it, when i sprayed WD40 on it I didnt spray it on the pulley where the belt is. instead I used the small red straw you get with WD40 to spray it in the tiny gap between the pulley and the main bulk of the alternator. does that make sense?

Ok the aerosol for the belt which was recommended didnt work unfortunately.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

See i thought WD40 would have made it worse aswell, but will try the aerosol. for a couple of quid its worth it. Some finer detail which I missed now i think about it, when i sprayed WD40 on it I didnt spray it on the pulley where the belt is. instead I used the small red straw you get with WD40 to spray it in the tiny gap between the pulley and the main bulk of the alternator. does that make sense?

Right, so what you were doing was providing short term extra lubrication to the alternator front shaft bearing. Out of interest, where did you source your new alternator - as it would seem that it also has a bit of bearing noise. It could still mean that that alternator is being asked to work quite hard as the bearing noise will increase a bit with work load.

Had a similar thing on an old fiesta and it turned out to be that the alternator was not lined up exactly. We put a washer on the alternator bracket and hey presto it had gone. Not sure if this is possible on a Fabia.

I got the alternator from a supplier on ebay. It was a new alternator though. Interesting thought about lining up the alternator I'll have a look and see if it looks out of line.

As for long term lubrication, would taking the alternator and trying to get some grease on the bearing help do you reckon?

Mine has started to make a similar noise recently. Sounds a bit like a ticking noise, a bit like a heavy breathing noise. Definitely coming from the alternator area. Evident on startup and idle. I was thinkning new alternator would fix it. Maybe I'll get them to look at it for next service.

Well if you do, let me know what they say as its completely stumped me.

What sort of mileage are we talking here? I'll have a listen under my bonet later on, it's making some noises too? hhmmm

Well mine is on 73000 but has been making the noise for about 10000. (cant be anything serious..... I hope!!)

Well mine is on 73000 but has been making the noise for about 10000. (cant be anything serious..... I hope!!)

Wouldn'r have though it's that serious or something would have happened by now surely?

Mine's on 86k now.

It has been making a wheesing noise from that area but I have just put that down to still having the original drive belt on there still, the 'v's are a bit cracked so I might get a new one, they can't be that expensive?

Mine has the same noise, sounds like wheezing/heavy breathing kind of noise ?

I have only noticed it since sorting the boost leak out probably because the whistle was over powering it I am asuming it has been there since I have had the car and its been absolutly fine

I will ask for it to be checked out though when its in for its end of warrenty check next week :thumbsup:

On the subject of misalignment, I'd have thought that this would only cause the belt to make more noise as it tried to escape out of the micro grooves on the pulleys. If you do suspect misalignment, try to "sight" along stretches or runs of the belt to see if it "dips" in - probably not too easy to do. Seeing as someone mentioned Fords, Ford tried using plastic dynamo pulleys back in the lates sixties - not a good idea as they tended to split!

Not entirely sure what you mean by trying to sight along stretched or runs? could you explain.

Looking at the system it looks like the pulley may be slightly misaligned being too far from the engine. However I have got the alternator as close to the engine as i can... am i missing something?

also tried getting some high temperature all purpose grease down the gap and it helps the noise disappear quicker but not entirely on start up.

If it is mis-alignment then the WD 40 will quieten it for a short time as it lubricates the side of the groove. Give it a try - you've nothing to lose as the WD40 will quickly disappear amd won't hurt anything.

Not entirely sure what you mean by trying to sight along stretched or runs? could you explain.

Looking at the system it looks like the pulley may be slightly misaligned being too far from the engine. However I have got the alternator as close to the engine as i can... am i missing something?

also tried getting some high temperature all purpose grease down the gap and it helps the noise disappear quicker but not entirely on start up.

The line of sight comment - try to look at the engine while viewing three pulleys, making sure one is the alternator pulley - and see if they are all in line - only thing is that this might not be possible with this installation.

Applying grease externally will not be a good idea as it will just get thrown back out on to the belt.