I came out of the garage after fuelling up for my wife, and on the way back home i heard a really high pitched shrieking sound. I have read threads about the possibility of maybe a stone trapped by the discs, but the problem went when i turned the engine off. I had the aircon on as it was very hot, and i was wondering if this might have been the problem?? it deffinately sounded as if one of the drive belts were stuck creating the shrieking noise...or does anyone on here think it might be something else ?? any help on this would be much appreciated. ps....i turned the aircon off, and the noise seems to has gone....any idea's? cheers andy

I came out of the garage after fuelling up for my wife, and on the way back home i heard a really high pitched shrieking sound. I have read threads about the possibility of maybe a stone trapped by the discs, but the problem went when i turned the engine off. I had the aircon on as it was very hot, and i was wondering if this might have been the problem?? it deffinately sounded as if one of the drive belts were stuck creating the shrieking noise...or does anyone on here think it might be something else ?? any help on this would be much appreciated. ps....i turned the aircon off, and the noise seems to has gone....any idea's? cheers andy

Get a bar of soap and hold it on the inside edge of the drive belt, be careful to keep hands away from moving parts, alternatively, get a toothbrush, and tape it to a stick and put washing up liquid on it and hold that on the belt, if the noise goes, you have three possibilities,

1 - The belt is worn

2 - The tensioner is worn and allowing sideways movement

3 - A pulley is worn, alt or steering pump.

Thanks for that info supurbia...i had read the maintenence manual. and it appears that our car is one of those opperating above normal conditions...ie lots of local driving where as my wife does frequent trips to care for her clients...so like you suggest it could well be worn belts or pulleys or the tensioner itself.

The car is in fact due for a 40k service...and i'll get the garage to check it out and make the neccesary repair as required...incidentally, the noise has now stopped. What kind of mileage does one need in order to replace the drive belts? And is it much of a job to replace the tensioner if its playing up? kind regards.....andy

Thanks for that info supurbia...i had read the maintenence manual. and it appears that our car is one of those opperating above normal conditions...ie lots of local driving where as my wife does frequent trips to care for her clients...so like you suggest it could well be worn belts or pulleys or the tensioner itself.

The car is in fact due for a 40k service...and i'll get the garage to check it out and make the neccesary repair as required...incidentally, the noise has now stopped. What kind of mileage does one need in order to replace the drive belts? And is it much of a job to replace the tensioner if its playing up? kind regards.....andy

I've not done a 2.0 mate so i don't know if it's any different to the 1.9, you normally need to take off the aircon belt before the steering one will come off, Roto explains it in one of his replies somewhere, but it is 1.9 belts he means, if you don't want to tackle it, if you need a timing belt yet, add the belts to the job, it adds about £30 to it iirc, but ask the fitter if he thinks the tensioner is ok, as I suspect it's pulley wobble somewhere making the edge of the belt squeal because it's not running true anymore, get expert help before you spend though, I'm only guessing from what you've said, for all I know it could be your gearbox about to explode

Well supurbia i'd be dammed right furious if the gearbox exploded...but i dont think i have to worry, as the car has only done almost 39k miles and still drives like it came out the show room...everything new and solid. I've been round the engine bay looking for obvious signs that maybe caused the belt to squeal in the first place....but i'm now thinking that something actually stopped and caused the high pitched squeal. As i said in the thread, i did have the aircon on...and as you know the superb has two cooling fans...one is viscous and the other electrically opperated...well when i got home with aircon on.....only the viscous fan was going round.....and i was wondering if that might have caused the noise.

Incidentally both the fans now work when auto aircon is selected, and when econ mode is selected its just the viscous fan that stays on with engine running..is it possible that something was shrieking away all because the aircon wasnt working properly? By the time i figure it out or someone has the answer to the glitch it will be winter and then its back to the heat mode :p