Apologies if this is posted anywhere else, I am new to Fiat Forum, I did have a look with no success.

My 1.2 '07 Grande Punto has for the last couple of days, made this screech/squeal sound on start up, only when the engine is cold. Once the engine is warmed up it starts completely fine with no screech/squeal.

I apologise in advance if this is something really easy, I have very little car knowledge, and I only bought this car at the end of July, and have never heard this noise before the last 2 days.

I did have the car checked by a garage last month after I bought it, and they did not find any faults etc

I have found a video on YouTube of the EXACT noise it makes, however I cannot post the link as I have not made 5 posts
This is the end of the address which is after YouTube dot com:
/watch?v=Z-tEUMkRYjU&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Does anyone know what The cause of this is?
Thank you in advance, any advice/help will be greatly appreciated!

hi rebecca2191 not having seen the you tube clip i can tell you from previous experiance that is caused by a slightly loose fan belt.on start up it tends to slip as it is cold.once warm it settles down as the fan belt becomes more flexible see if you can get it adjusted slightly.if this does not work then it could be the cam belt pulleys or adjustament tenchaner [sorry about spelling] try the first one and see how it goes.im sure other fiat members will also be able to shed some more light on this matter.hope this helps.

It will be the 'fan' belt (which is sometimes called the 'auxiliary drive belt' since on modern cars it doesn't drive the fan). As said above, it may need tightening (If your car has manual adjustment that is, often cars with air con have an automatic tensioner). If tension is ok a new belt will often solve the problem cheaply, they can get contaminated with oil and slip.

If your problem happens only after it has rained it could also be due to the Grande Punto having a small design flaw. The water from the windscreen drains onto the alternator and the fan belt. There is a simple rubber tube available from fiat that re-directs the water away from trouble. This mod is recommend regardless of whether it is the problem or not because the water can freeze in the alternator and ruin it.

Thank you both for your advice I will check this out, hopefully tomorrow! Thanks again

Just bear in mind that rubber EXPANDS when the temperature is cooler. This means it may be looser in the winter, and a screech is more likely. We have temp swings of 25C+ in summer and -10C+ in winter, so it is a lot to contend with.

It is very tricky to tension a belt properly in a country with such varying temps.

Ours did this until i spilt a small amount of oil on it.
Not done it now for about 3 months

keat63 said:

Ours did this until i spilt a small amount of oil on it.
Not done it now for about 3 months

Click to expand...

Lol oil degrades rubber...

Does the car have air conditioning?

Magic Johnson said:

Lol oil degrades rubber...

Click to expand...

So does KY Jelly .. allegedly

Yes it has air con, it didn't do it this morning so I am thinking it could be the rain problem mentioned earlier, as it only did the screech on 3 days which it had chucked it down! It has not rained since yesterday evening so I will have to wait and see if it does it next time it has rained (shouldn't have too long of a wait!)

Thanks again everyone!

Chances are a modified scuttle drain will solve your issue

Pull old one out and clip New one in angle it down back of engine

Sort it before winter frozen alternator or ac pump bearings = broken down even a regular soaking can drastically reduce life expectancy

See this thread
https://www.fiatforum.com/grande-punto/328020-alternator-help.html