Don't remind me about drivebelt squealing, had a spate of about 6 on my old Benz over as many years, as soon as they'd been on for 6 months or so they'd start up wailing again, tried all sorts, OE, Gates, you name it, got to be ridiculous and this wasn't just my car either, he was pulling his hair out.

Eventually my indy found that Continental branded belts seemed to offer a cure, indeed the new Continental branded belt has been on for 2 years and only squeals for a few seconds on a damp day cold start, blissful silence otherwise.

Although the belt looks ok with no splits or cracks,it is possible that the grooves of the belt have worn down and thus not gripping enough.When the engine is warm,the metal components expand slightly and the belt becomes more supple.Change the belt first but rotate the pulleys with the belt off to check for any excess wear or noise.hth

Last winter, I was getting a loud crackling noise from my CMax on cold mornings which disappeared after a few minutes once a little heat had been generated. On really cold frosty mornings it sounded like there was sparking coming from the alternator area.

Having discounted the alternator as the cause, I sprayed some water over the belts to test. There are two belts, the main alternator/water pump one and one for the air con compressor. The noise was coming from the compressor belt (the noise went for a few seconds whilst wet). This belt is of the stretchy kind, so no adjustment possible and it looked perfectly OK when I removed it, but a new one cured the problem. The replacement was a Continental.

Edited by Chris M on 31/12/2013 at 09:27