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Weird noise with my car???


Wax
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My car has been making a very strange noise for the past month. I first noticed it on May 8th after driving for about half and hour, and I let the car idle in neutral for a while. It's kind of a weird whining noise and demonstrated in this video (sorry for the gross portrait orientation)

It's a 1.4 petrol ford fiesta mk6 (I believe it might be known as the mk5 in the States). When I bought it, it had 88k miles on the odometer and was due a cambelt replacement. My guess is that it is the cambelt (I'm guessing that's the belt you see on the left in the video) that's causing the noise? I had the cambelt replaced shortly before I bought it, but after a few months of driving, it now makes this noise.

I've read two conflicting arguments online: the first is that the tension in one part or another simply needs to be adjusted, and then the noise will stop. Second, I've heard that it needs replacing entirely because it's going to break.

I'd like to get a second opinion, cause I'm not really savvy at this kind of thing. @6tails maybe? I don't quite know who is knowledgeable about cars here and who isn't

Thanks again!

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That isn't a cam belt. 

A cam belt or cam chain in located deep inside your engine where you would never see it. It is what controls the timing of the engine. If that belt or chain snaps in most cases your engine will self-destruct as the internal parts all crash into each other.

So if the timing belt was replaced your motor internals should be good until the car dies. 

The belt that you can see is called the accessory drive belt. It uses some of the power from the engine to spin a belt that provides power to all kinds of things that help the car run like the coolant pump, fan blades, power steering pump, alternator etc. The alternator is the thing with the copper wires in it that the belt is next to. It charges the battery and gives your car electrical power. This also has a tensioner on it and in the old days you could use a "timing gun" or light gun and shoot it at the belt to see marks that would indicate the engine timing. 

The accessory belts wear out frequently and are easy to change. Sometimes the belts get worn and start to slip. That could be the cause of the noise. A loose belt is not the end of the world unless it snaps which is very bad. Or it gets too loose and your car overheats, loses power steering, or gets a dead battery from lack of power. 

If the belt has never been changed it is quick to do and won't hurt the car. If you change the belt and you still have the noise it could be a pulley that holds the belts or one of the pumps or the alternator. If there are no fluids leaking out of the car than it probably isn't a pump. If you car drips fluids put a piece of paper under the car and check the colour of the fluid so you can tell what part is leaking by the colour of the fluid. 

 

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Sounds like the bearings in one of the pullies. Could be your tensioner pulley is about dead. That's what I'd suspect.

Not that I was an ASE certified mechanic or anything.

I mean, I was. But that's just like, my opinion man.

In all honesty that's definitely the sound of friction and with the pattern it's friction from something spinning. If it is your cam belt and that tensioner goes, you run the risk of serious damage to the valve train. I'd definitely bring it to a near by mechanic.

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The Ford 1.4l Zetec had belt driven camshafts. There is a tensioner in there that keeps the belt tight. If the tensioner pulley does have failing ball bearings, it could friction lock and shred the timing belt which would be bad for the engine. I've rebuild enough 4g63s to know this is a bad time lol. 

maxresdefault.jpg that guy right there. It's possible it never got replaced with the timing belt, which is what I'd personally check since you say the belt is newer.

(Edit- again it's hard to diagnose this with a short video clip. And 6tails is right- it could be the alternator. Bring it to a mechanic.)

29 minutes ago, 6tails said:

That particular sound really sounds like metal rubbing! I've never heard a tensioner make that noise, before. I've heard the alternator emit something similar.

 

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Thanks for the help guys!

I'm bringing it to my cousin who is a mechanic on sunday. Hopefully then we can look at it together and find out for sure what the problem is. Even though I have the documents somewhere, the United Kingdom in all its holy greatness allows me to look up the MOT history of a car online.

After doing some reading my guess is that the auxiliary belt could be too loose but we'll find out soon?

Capture.PNG

This is the result of its most recent MOT.

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19 minutes ago, 6tails said:

I think he'd probably be pointing the camera towards the middle of the car if he were hearing something related to the power steering/rack and pinion.

I was thinking more about the pump rather than the rack.

But this is just speculation, I'm more familiar with the traditional steering box system.

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On 6/6/2016 at 10:09 AM, #00Buck said:

A cam belt or cam chain in located deep inside your engine where you would never see it. It is what controls the timing of the engine. If that belt or chain snaps in most cases your engine will self-destruct as the internal parts all crash into each other.

That's not always the case, it's often on the outside of the block next to the accessory belt, like in some older Toyotas that have them.

That definitely looks like a serpentine belt, or accessory belt or whatever you want to call it.

Like you said, a timing belt going out would probably cause bigger problems (like driving a piston through a cylinder) and they are notched so it wouldn't slip.

The serpentine when loose will produce a characteristic loud-and-annoying-as-fuck screeching noise.

It could be a pulley, the alternator, water pump or anything else attached that moves if it's a softer sound.

It could also be something besides the serpentine system, why do you think it is that?

Does it come and go at certain times, like when it's hot (has been running) or cold?

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33 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Does it come and go at certain times, like when it's hot (has been running) or cold?

Yes. It tends to start as soon as I switch the engine on, however when I drove it today for about an hour it didn't make the noise when I parked up and the engine was hot.

When I dropped my friend off after about 40 minutes of driving (hot engine) it wasn't there. But when I got home about 10 minutes later it was there.

In fact today's the only day where I haven't heard the noise.

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21 hours ago, Ricky said:

Yeah, my best guess would be the water pump but there are a lot of things that could cause it.

I'm assuming it's not the belt, that much should be obvious (I don't have audio atm).

If it's a 2000 or 2001 it might be the transmission fluid filter.

It's 2004. We'll more than likely find out tomorrow anyhow, but thanks for the help!

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OK, now that it's probably fixed, I'm certain I know what it was: An infestation of rodents. Once the engine got too hot and you drove for a while, then they all jumped off, and things ran quiet. But after you parked, new rodents would come right back, and start to make squeaky, complaining noises when you started the engine. Some cars can be very attractive to rodents, and your sounds like one of them. Ongoing extermination is the only solution.

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