Intermittent squealing on Clio engine ?

I should know this, but I am out of practice, a momentary squeal on starting the engine and I am told when changing gear on a mark one 1.2 Clio with the Energy motor. I am also told as the owner of this car has a thing about noise, she dips the clutch a bit to stop the squealing whilst out on the road which I saw don't because that is killing the clutch prematurely it skimming the flywheel to maintain drive but stop the squeal which makes me think is this a clutch problem. The car has only 87k miles on it and is in very good shape for it's age, better than mine that is why I advised her to buy it, but when anything goes wrong, it comes across as though it is my fault.

But the squeal what could it be, the alternator drive belt seems tight enough and no other belts, so is it a clutch fault I wonder, I hope not as that will be my fault as well, or could it be the water pump, but those don't usually fail until past the 100k mark, mine was only just starting to dribble past the bearing at the 105k mark

But yesterday a whinge session I got and this lady is an Australian whom I have said to her she has been in Britain too long for she has turned into a Brit with her whiny whinge, it is that irritating, but odd her car seems to come in for a lot of vandalism I wonder. But after spending four hours of my day fixing a broken hinge on the rear hatch flap of her car and giving the engine a bit of a look over I got both barrels of whinge about the squeal.

On starting the motor from cold yes there was a momentary squeal that went in a second, but I could not detect where it was from as well on Clio's one can either stand one side of the car or the other due to the bonnet arrangement.


Any ideas ?

Oh edited to add when doing the finger press test on the alternator drive belt, it did seem kind of tight, which now makes me think is this a bearing problem on the alternator of which I hope not as changing the alternator on those things is a pig.

That ladies earrings need oiling again

I'd be pretty sure it's the alternator bearings going and causing the belt to slip.

Our MGF's alternator has been dying that way since about February, must get round to sorting it...

I had a squeal no my car that normally stopped when I clutched, it was the expansion valve of the AC that was broken and it prevented the engaging of the AC correctly and ended on wrecked it. The noise was the from the destroyed AC engine bearings. At high speed it would eventually engage and work properly, but not on low speeds.

Screech on starting can be starter motor bendix - replace quickly before the motor gets trashed.
Drive belts can screech if loose, especially when cold. My Saab had a high pitched whine, which turned out to be the belt tensioner bearing.
Clutch release bearing sounds a good candidate if dropping the clutch fixes it.

try spraying some wd40/gt85 on the alternator/aux belts, see if that cures the problem.

if it does then the belt needs adjusting/changing.

if not, then..... :?

jimo746":3awt4luf said:

try spraying some wd40/gt85 on the alternator/aux belts, see if that cures the problem.

if it does then the belt needs adjusting/changing.

if not, then..... :?

Click to expand...

Why would you want to put lubricant on the alternator belt?
Jeez, if it's because it's slipping that it's squealing, in my opinion/experience that's the most likely reason, you'll just make it worse. :facepalm:

Pulley.

I had some weird squeaks coming from my old car, turned out to be worn engine mounts of all things... Mind you everything that could go wrong went wrong with that fecking Escort!

I had some weird squeaks coming from my old car, turned out to be worn engine mounts of all things... Mind you everything that could go wrong went wrong with that fecking Escort!