Noisy Ancillary Drive Belt

[Vmax500]

My Chimaera 500 has recently taken to making a horrible squeaking/rattling noise from the ancillary drive belt upon a cold start. The noise stops after about 1-2 minutes of normal running. It sounds as if the belt is slipping or is too loose but as I say, it soon stops?!?££$

The belt 'feels' as taught as usual.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to adjust, clean, treat the belt or indeed eliminate the problem? At the moment my pride and joy sounds like a 1979 Vauxhall Chevette for the first 2 minutes every morning!!!

[trefor]

Easiest thing is to replace it if you've never done so. They're around £10 from a TVR dealer (where you'll get the right length).

If it's a serpentine engined car then you can get stones stuck in the grooves. Take it off and clean them out - reverse the belt before putting it back on - that might solve the noise too (I don't mean turn it inside out!!!).

If the noise continues with a brand new belt then it could be one of the ancilliaries playing up. For example the water pump, alternator or PAS pump might be losing their bearings.

T/.

[.mark]

Had exactly the same thing, fitted a new belt but after a couple of weeks the noise was back. Thought I'd better get pulleys checked out so went to dealer, they removed the fan belt removed the smallest stone from the grooves checked the pulleys, cleaned them up a bit refitted the belt and chucked on a wiper blade all FOC. No noise - at the moment - even when very wet weather and very cold.
The dealer did make what I thought was a valid comment though, in the particularly cold weather the belt will get very cold and somewhat 'rigid' this could cause a bit of slip, but as you said after a couple of minutes the noise goes away anyway, it was a bit embarrasing though.

[cockers]

Had the same thing on my old (whisper) Clio 16v.

WD40'd it and all was quiet.

[.mark]

Trouble with WD40 is it's a lubricant - spray it on the belt/pulleys and it will just slip quietly, and when you have such a small battery to turn over a V8 you need all the power out of it you can get. I used talcum powder to stop the noise until my belt was changed and it worked a treat, bit messey but the engine bay smelt luverly
Someone else mentioned that while the engine is running hold a wax crayon to the underside of the belt and that also does the trick, this I didn't try as I like my hands and fingers where they are!

[apache]

WD40 is a good idea if you are careful, ie turn off engine and spray, using the straw type thingy, at the back of the pulleys so it runs onto the shaft. It's done the trick for me in the past

[Vmax500]

Thanks for the suggestions guys - that's my Sunday morning taken care of!