Its funny but my aux belt seems to get noisy after 2 years of life regardless of mileage!
I remember when i changed that after 3 years/50k miles, the belt looked very knackered.

It makes a squealy noise upon initial start up when very cold. For now I plan on doing nothing, its only been like 20 k miles since i changed it!

How are you guys managing with that squeal?

Ahmett, when I changed my mj auxiliary belt, I also changed the tensioner. This was recommended by Haynes, but probably wasn't necessary.

However, if you didn't change this part with your new belt, could it be possible that that is the cause of the excessive wear?

Wild speculation, but worth consideration.

snes said:

Ahmett, when I changed my mj auxiliary belt, I also changed the tensioner. This was recommended by Haynes, but probably wasn't necessary.

However, if you didn't change this part with your new belt, could it be possible that that is the cause of the excessive wear?

Wild speculation, but worth consideration.

Click to expand...

could be! i wont do anything about it for now and until i change the timing belt in 50,000 kms time. So it will be a while, but when i do so I will have a look at the tensioner to change that!

Thanks for the advice.
Worst case the aux belt fails, its not the end of the world i don't really drive out of town too much and I do have breakdown assistance = )

Peugeot and Ford cars used to suffer with belts that squealed, often in less than 20000 miles. Replacing the belt would only cure the problem for a few weeks, the problem was due to worn pulleys that allowed the belt to bottom in the grooves. I used to re-groove the pulleys and this would completely cure the problem. Once a belt had been used with worn pulleys it would wear even quicker. I used to notice that cars that lived mainly on motorways and dual carriageways often had quite pitted pulleys, possibly from running in salt laden spray during the winter. When the car was then standing for a couple of days the pulley would rust resulting in rapid deterioration of the very small Vs in it.

On the old 1.2 engines, that were non-interference, I would let the car go up to 700000 miles on a cam belt and change the auxiliary belt at the same time (this would always be quite badly cracked). The cam belt itself would still look as new, no visible cracks.

As a parting shot, I found a good use for old cambelts. They can be made into a very good strap wrench

David Bliss said:

Peugeot and Ford cars used to suffer with belts that squealed, often in less than 20000 miles. Replacing the belt would only cure the problem for a few weeks, the problem was due to worn pulleys that allowed the belt to bottom in the grooves. I used to re-groove the pulleys and this would completely cure the problem. Once a belt had been used with worn pulleys it would wear even quicker. I used to notice that cars that lived mainly on motorways and dual carriageways often had quite pitted pulleys, possibly from running in salt laden spray during the winter. When the car was then standing for a couple of days the pulley would rust resulting in rapid deterioration of the very small Vs in it.

On the old 1.2 engines, that were non-interference, I would let the car go up to 700000 miles on a cam belt and change the auxiliary belt at the same time (this would always be quite badly cracked). The cam belt itself would still look as new, no visible cracks.

As a parting shot, I found a good use for old cambelts. They can be made into a very good strap wrench

Click to expand...

The top belt actually looks like it would have lasted a while longer!

Hey guys I noticed that my engine sounds weird between 3-5000 rpm but only when the ac on. What could this be? Aux belt ? Compressor ?

Here are some videos .

1. Normal sound with ac off

[ame]https://youtu.be/ET_krOZafPo[/ame]

2. Weird sound with ac on especially between 3-4000 rpm

[ame]https://youtu.be/VWH_Kh3y8Vw[/ame]

Any help ? Thanks

Sounds don't replicate very well over my computer's speakers, but it sounds slightly rough-ish as if a ball bearing is going in the aircon pump. I may have just been lucky but I never get these serviced as, in my experience, ones left untouched have given less trouble. Also when the aircon is not used regularly I do turn it on for a few minutes on a regular basis throughout the year in order to circulate oil and renew the oil film inside the pump, this should help with the service life.

David Bliss said:

Sounds don't replicate very well over my computer's speakers, but it sounds slightly rough-ish as if a ball bearing is going in the aircon pump. I may have just been lucky but I never get these serviced as, in my experience, ones left untouched have given less trouble. Also when the aircon is not used regularly I do turn it on for a few minutes on a regular basis throughout the year in order to circulate oil and renew the oil film inside the pump, this should help with the service life.

Click to expand...

i went to fiat they said the airbox cover is loose and there is a rupture in it. So the noise gets worse when the AC is on. Sounds believable enough?

haha 170 euros to fix, part alone is 150. I guess it doesn't take so long to change an airbox.

ahmett said:

I guess it doesn't take so long to change an airbox.

Click to expand...

You could probably do it yourself in less time than it takes to write a meaningful post on this forum .

On a car that's as worn out as yours I'd either repair the old one or look for a replacement from a breaker. No way would I want to spend another €170 on fixing something this trivial.

jrkitching said:

You could probably do it yourself in less time than it takes to write a meaningful post on this forum .

On a car that's as worn out as yours I'd either repair the old one or look for a replacement from a breaker. No way would I want to spend another €170 on fixing something this trivial.

Click to expand...

haha fiat prices 150 euros for a piece of plastic = )

oh and they said i should get round to changing it as it may cause the engine to misfire and push upon the spark plugs.

ahmett said:

haha fiat prices 150 euros for a piece of plastic = )

oh and they said i should get round to changing it as it may cause the engine to misfire and push upon the spark plugs.

Click to expand...

More misinformation. A broken airbox may let a bit of unfiltered air into the engine (which admittedly isn't ideal), but it's not going to start misfiring. There's no meaningful vacuum in the induction system upstream of the throttle plate, so it won't make much difference to the airflow reaching the engine - and the ECU will adjust the fuel trim to compensate for any small variation anyway.

The 500 airbox has a small fitting at the back (where the breathers are connected); this is fragile and easily broken by a hamfisted mechanic. The fitting is a small piece of plastic which costs just a few cents to make, but Fiat will only sell you a complete airbox for silly money.

I'm guessing that one of the fitters who's been working on your car has caused this damage - they don't just break by themselves.

How this could be related to having your A/C running is beyond me .

And yes, I could have changed an airbox in the time it's taken me to write this.

ahmett said:

I actually now want to drive it to the ground.

Click to expand...

Seems to me you might already have done that. It seems your car has reached the stage where it's no longer economic to continue to run it if you're dependent on third parties for repairs.

jrkitching said:

More misinformation. A broken airbox may let a bit of unfiltered air into the engine (which admittedly isn't ideal), but it's not going to start misfiring. There's no meaningful vacuum in the induction system upstream of the throttle plate, so it won't make much difference to the airflow reaching the engine - and the ECU will adjust the fuel trim to compensate for any small variation anyway.

The 500 airbox has a small fitting at the back (where the breathers are connected); this is fragile and easily broken by a hamfisted mechanic. The fitting is a small piece of plastic which costs just a few cents to make, but Fiat will only sell you a complete airbox for silly money.

I'm guessing that one of the fitters who's been working on your car has caused this damage - they don't just break by themselves.

How this could be related to having your A/C running is beyond me .

And yes, I could have changed an airbox in the time it's taken me to write this.



Seems to me you might already have done that.

Click to expand...

jrkitching what if i do absolutely nothing about it and just deal with it and listen to the annoying noise it makes when the ac is on?

any long term ill effects?

ahmett said:

jrkitching what if i do absolutely nothing about it and just deal with it and listen to the annoying noise it makes when the ac is on?

any long term ill effects?

Click to expand...

I can't see any relationship between a broken airbox and a noise that's only present with the A/C on.

Red herring, perhaps?

The airbox fault may not be causing the noise - you could have another different problem with the A/C. It could be low refrigerant pressure - when was it last regassed?

jrkitching said:

I can't see any relationship between a broken airbox and a noise that's only present with the A/C on.

Red herring, perhaps?

The airbox fault may not be causing the noise - you could have another different problem with the A/C. It could be low refrigerant pressure - when was it last regassed?

Click to expand...

Never? haha.

did you hear a difference in the videos?

Maybe i should go to my regular indie and get a second opinion.

but again i dont want to spend any more money on this car. if it can last me a year without dying, i'll get rid of it most likely.

i've just serviced it, changed the brakes and tires, so all safety related issues are solved for the time being.

Since i am planning to drive this car 1000's of kms at top speed (around 100 mph cruising) over the summer, i decided to go to an indie and try and seal this hole in the airbox.
He saw the problem will try to put a rubber seal to fix it.

I went to my boys after they said ac compressor may be noisy but don't worry about it. They tightened Airbox and said don't worry about that either back to driving then and 7000 rpm !

You're not one of the snails that Frupi refers to, are you Ahmett!!