Right, I have a noise. The characteristics are thus:

* Sounds like a squealing belt

* Always seems the same pitch regardless of road speed or engine speed

* Only appears intermittently when accelerating in a straight line on slightly uneven roads, or prolonged when accelerating and turning right on any road

* When coasting in or out of gear, it doesn't happen, nor when accelerating turning left

* It's not driveshaft/ARB rubbing (I've looked, and with the underneath of my car being grimy, it would be easy to see if there has been contact. There hasn't)

* It's not PAS related (I pulled fuse 7 for a quick test drive, and the noise still occurs under the same circumstances as before)

* It's not the one-way clutch on the alternator that I've read about, as I can turn the fan blades one way but not the other

* It doesn't seem to be pipework related, although I did notice tonight that the silicon 90 degree pipe leading up to my EGR delete has been rubbing against the side of the coolant bottle and has a little nick in the outer, also the steel boost pipe has been rubbing against something and has slightly worn away, there's a noticable dent. I've now adjusted the joins so that there's a bit more room and that'll hopefully solve that problem. I do want to check the rest of the pipework and make sure it's all secure but I won't have chance to get the bumper off for a few days

* It doesn't seem to be the EGR blank on the turbo, I've tried tightening it and only just got 1/8-1/4 of a turn on both bolts before they were "handtight". Might change the gasket anyway, but I don't think this is the problem

So I'm looking for other ideas of things I can check myself before I have to admit defeat and hand it over to a garage...any suggestions gratefully received!

do you have egr delete? Manifold blanking plates can do this if not sealed properly

Yeah, I believe it's an Allard pipe but not sure. And yeah, I've read that the plates can come loose (as suggested by Chris Waite in other threads) so I do want to get it checked. However, I'm not 100% convinced because I don't see why that would be affected only going one way. Because it's easily reproducable turning right but never happens turning left, I get the feeling it's more pipework/engine mount related, and something in my bay is moving (if only very slightly) under certain cornering forces when it shouldn't be. Whereas the EGR blank is directly attached to the manifold, and is a small item so wouldn't have any movement in it against the manifold. If you see what I mean. I do need to get it checked though, just needs a bit of time set aside as I'm not 100% sure what I'd be looking for under there...

heres a pic i used for a tutorial, its about the same at back of your engine, the 2 bolts inside yellow circle are ones to check.

Cars are funny things, stuff that makes no sense at all often ends up being the culprit

Old Joke - noise heard " SQUEEQY / SQQEEYY / SQUEEQY/ WIFF/WIFF/WIFF.It was mouse on hot water pipe on ship.

Cheers Lofty, that definitely helps. From the perspective of that pic, that would be looking up from just behind the passenger wheel, camera pointed up towards the drivers side strut tower? As I assume that's the EGR pipework still attached in that picture? Is there meant to be any kind of gasket there, or just make sure the bolts holding the blanking plate on are tight?

yes small metal reuseable gasket. yes egr pipe is still on in pic. No location is middle of back of engine, Reach it from above to right of engine after removing some intake pipework to the airbox and pretty much blindly have a feel around for it. looking from right down through to back of engine with a torch may reveal it.

Make sure its tight first as if its loose that would sort it, if its tight may be worth adding some gun gum between the surfaces (thin layer to avoid any dropping in the turbo)

Awesome, if it's doable from the top I'll see about pulling some of the airbox pipework off and see what I can find, can probably get that done tomorrow morning before I need the car for the rest of the day. If it's already tight, I might just buy a new gasket rather than risk getting anything in one of the turbo ports, it'll be practically pennies next time I'm passing TPS

good idea pal. Side note, make sure engine is cold, as it gets mighty hot back there, so hot in fact my hand got stuck to it and i didnt know as it just killed the nerves and took time for my brain to go.... er.....hang on.

Yeah, that's why I'm not doing anything tonight! Even just adjusting the intercooler pipework earlier I kept catching my hands on hot bits, and that's on top where I'd had the bonnet open for 10 minutes. Bugger touching the turbo once it's been driven, it can wait till crack of dawn tomorrow and I'll have a go before the shops open

keep us posted

Well, as always I got impatient and went and did it anyway, sadly no difference. I got maybe an eighth of a turn tighter on the bottom bolt and between an eighth and a quarter turn on the top bolt, so it was already pretty tight. For the sake of how easy it actually is to get to though, I might well replace the gasket. But I don't think it's the actual cause of my problem :(

PS after being stood for about 90 minutes, it had cooled down nicely to "uncomfortably hot" rather than "painfully hot"

sounds like me, i cant actually go to bed if i know of possibility of fixing something 2 am or anytime.

ill keep thinking mate

is it a squeal? or is it a more quiet chirpy squeak?

It sounds to me like a squeal, sounds very much like a belt slipping. If it had happened on my old Leon with mechanical power steering then I'd have said it was the aux belt being put under stress as I turned the wheel, but that's obviously not going to be the case on the Fabia with its electric power steering (which I've ruled out by pulling the fuse and going for a very short, very tedious test drive).

It's a hard one to pinpoint though, I want to try and record it as it's easy to reproduce, but I'm not sure whether my cheapy point and shoot camera will pick it up properly in a video. It's something I'll try in the morning I think.

no more late night tom foolery

Right, so I'm still no further along. I've re-fastened all the top boost pipework again so there shouldn't be any rubbing, and I still get the noise. Only thing I can think of is the aux belt is under the wrong tension when turning right, maybe due to excessive engine lean (perhaps my engine mounts are past their best, the cars done 106k, I don't know how long they usually last). Is it possible to adjust the tension of the aux belt on a Fabia, or is it a case of paying to get a new belt and tensioner fitted and hoping that's the problem? Any "quick fixes" I can do to pinpoint the issue? It only happens under load, I can rev it on the driveway with the wheels in any position and there's no squeal, which also makes me think it's to do with belt tension under cornering. I've read about holding a bar of soap lightly against the belt while it's turning to see if it coats the belt and helps it grip, but that doesn't sound the best idea to me...

i have something of use now, my cousins has same noise, turned out to be aux belt tensioner, it was fitted with one shim left out leaving it at a very slight angle when bolted to engine and it gave a constant squeal under certain conditions, got it straight and squeal stopped.

have you had your cambelt done recently? sometimes the tensioner goes anyway, giving a resistant squeal.

Not recently, the cambelt was done at 60k by the previous owner (well, done by Awesome, while the previous owner had the car), it's now on around 106k. Not sure on the dates, but when I bought the car last April it was on around 82k, so I'd say it's been at least 2 years, and I'll probably be getting it done again sometime next year with my milage and it'll be coming towards 4 years anyway. I haven't seen any paperwork to say the aux belt's ever been touched, I don't recall seeing any invoices for it nor seeing the box ticked in the service book....sounds like the aux belt and tensioner is worth a look then as your cousin's symptoms sound similar to mine (constant squeal, easily reproducible under certain conditions).

yeah his looked fine but wasnt quite straight. My recommendation, if it can be reproduced stationary, take belt off and start for a few seconds and see if it has stopped.

If tensioner bearing has gone it may be causing slippage, or as said off line due to play or incorrect mount shims.

I've tried getting it to do it stood still, but it refuses. I was half tempted to take the belt off and drive it, but I don't know what would stop working and I dunno whether I have the tools/knowhow to get it back on again! I think on the Fabia it would only be battery charging and air conditioning that wouldn't work, the power steering is electric so that would be fine. But I don't want to take it off and then find I can only drive in daylight with the radio off to save my battery charge for starting it the next time