Picked up my Fiesta on Friday and its so good to be back in one after 3.5 years! Being an old man (34!) I'm very happy to have the Titanium.

I noticed that on a cold start, with the air conditioning on that there is a grinding noise in the dash. When air con isn't on, no noise.

Now, when I say grinding noise, it sounds more like a CD Drive trying to eject nothing (obviously, no CD drive) than a grinding/mashing of parts.

I have already booked in back in with the dealer to look at. I just wanted to know if anyone else has any ideas what could be the cause?

When I test drove it the week before there was nothing of the sort on start and since then and pickup it has been serviced and checked, etc so just wondering if it could be as simple as some air in the system or something when its been topped up?

This sounds very similar to my thread below.

Does this same noise happen when you turn off the car also?  I'd be very interested to know what your dealer says.  

My local mechanic said the dash has to come off for them to fix it, told me to go to Ford.  

 

Yes it does! I will find out and let you know! My car is under warranty so its not going to cost me anything to fix but I can get get an estimate on cost.

For those in the future that find this.

Took car in to Dealer before Christmas, was told it would take a couple of days to resolve so took in back in early January expecting a simple fix and done situation.

However...

After a lot of backwards and forwards between myself and the Dealer/Garage they finally replaced the entire "Heater Box" (I'm not a huge car guy) behind the dashboard under warranty. Kept trying to make excuses about leaves etc and suddenly being unable to recreate the issue when I brought it back in after Christmas. I believe what the didn't want to do was put in the work to actually investiage the issue properly. I had to explain to them they were able to create the issue before Christmas, only difference now being it being slightly colder so it might need a small warm up first, etc, etc

Got the car picked up a couple of weeks after dropping it off for it to make the noise the moment engine was turned off. Clearly issue is present, car was taken back to Garage. Warranty claim put in last week and I'll hopefully be picking the car up Saturday and never dealing with the Garage side of the dealership again.