Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Engine Problem

Tarka is laid up at Williams, waiting for a diagnosis of the horrible squealing noise coming from the front of the engine.

The noise, which sounds very much like the "serpentine" auxiliary drive belt or something driven by it isn't exactly new, for some time would come on very occasionally for a few seconds when the engine was cold, but soon disappear

Driving rather quickly at Castle Combe the noise became constant and louder....although once the engine was cool it was quieter but still very noticeable.

Has anyone else had this sort of experience with the belt or parts driven by it?

As everything works and there are no leaks, no warning lights, the view from the Williams Technicians was that it is, in order of probability..
1. The belt,
2. A belt idler or tensioner pulley.. there are 2 idlers and one tensioner....
3. The water pump, A/C compressor or alternator.

To make a diagnosis the bonnet and cowl have to come off.
Replacement of the faulty parts may well require one or both wings off.

The track day may well turn out to be expensive.

Oh dear
Sorry to hear that PJ, at least it's in the right hands to sort quickly

Sounds like the alternator belt. Was it worse with the lights on?

Tensioner pulley Peter,bet my danglies on it, that's the one under load and the normal one to fail. If it were me I would change the belt at the same time, belt and bracers engineering and all that and as the labour is more than the parts it makes sense. Fingers crossed for you but your description fits the model.

No , neither the lights, A/C nor power steering load made any difference, so I hope Colin is right and it is the tensioner.

Even so it is going to be costly...

sorry to hear that Peter

Sounds as though it could be the belt but you are doing the right thing getting it all checked out.

Hope it all goes well

James

I did see your car parked up there yesterday.

Not had any noise like that on mine. Hopefully its only a tensioner or loose belt. It could of been alot worse, track days sometimes tend to bite back..

Hello Peter,I had the same problem and that was the vacuum pump on the top RH side on the engine that was becoming dry and after replacing the noise was gone,I hope this helps.My Aero 8 collection (4)learn me every day someting new.Paul.R.Haas.

Is the Air Con working ?

When we took the Coupe on its little jaunt we only had one outage but it may have been similar.

Driving along we got what sounded like a ancillary belt screech/squeal as I went to full lock. It did it in a continuous tone for about thirty seconds. As I came off lock it went away.

No lights on dash.
No bad engine running.
As the engine had been run for a few hours it was hot and the A/Con seemed to fail. A.C light still on on dashboard.

We went to Borghi the next morning and they quickly worked out that the Compressor for the A/C had failed internally. Apparently this can cause the squeal as the internals fail.

So if the belts are all okay and the cooling effect is no longer there it might be worth checking. You are right, it was NOT cheap. It was however quick to replace and they had us back on plan the next day. The air/con also worked a lot better which was helpful as we went down to Italy.

I'll go for the tensioner bearing!