Howling aux belt

[deadmau5]

Since the weather got cold in December my aux belt started giving a little chirp on start up. Gradually it got worse and when dry steering in the morning the steering would be 'lumpy'. I had the aux belt changed which cured the problem for a a month. Now it's back with a vengeance.

This morning it was so bad. Screeching even when driving in a straight line then it would stop all of a sudden. At times I had no pas at all. Driving back from work it was the same, then I turned the stereo and fans off and it pretty much went back to making no sound. There was still a tiny bit of screeching when dry steering but apart from that it was fine.
I drew a line on the crank pulley to check that wasn't moving and the line was in tact when I checked.

By my guess it's the PAS pump? I have a recon unit to fit this weekend along with a new aux belt kit. I checked the pas fluid level and it was in the middle and the fluid was a light colour.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[bloke]

the wife's car was doing pretty much the same...

 

[deadmau5]

The infamous crank pulley...

Did it take the cam belt with it?

 

[Connor19]

I had the same issue on my MK3 Clio, changed the aux belt and that cured it for a month or two, came back with vengence same as yours. I didn't have the steering issues but the noise was really bad, even worse when wet.

The cause ended up being the aux belt tensioner for me.

 

[Dan@SJM]

If if was just he belt that was changed that's the problem.

 

[deadmau5]

If if was just he belt that was changed that's the problem.

Thank you Dan.
The tensioner is less than a year old. Do you think it's still likely to be the issue? What do you think it would be about the tensioner that would cause the issue?
Cheers.

 

[bloke]

The infamous crank pulley...

Did it take the cam belt with it?

belt didn't go, was just making funny noises.