Hey,

So couple days ago my car started making this odd noise, on lasted a couple of seconds then would stop, this has now got to the point where doesn't stop till I've been driving about 10 mins. Looks to be coming from the left side of the engine by the belts and I have no idea what's wrong. Taking it to my dad's this weekend but he's not sure either 😞 please help tried to upload video but it won't let me

Does sound to me like an alternator drive belt, alternator works hard initially, then the load drops as the battery is recharged. I don't know how many belts on that engine, but may be prudent to change them all.

What model focus do you have?

This is from memory and about 12 years ago but a family friend had a mk2 focus and they had a similar noise that I thought was the drive belt but it wasn't it was a hose but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called but at the time it was a dealer only part but not that expensive, hopefully one of the more regular members recognises what I'm on about

Thank you for the replies 🤞🏼 hopefully I'll be able to figure out what it is tomorrow as I've only had the car 10 month and could do without expensive repairs 😔

I have had a similar problem on another car that was caused by a slipping drive belt.

The belts harden and glaze with age which causes them to slip. This can be worse in cold or damp weather. The noise can stop once you have been driving a while as the belt becomes more flexible as it warms up. The condensation also dries off.

The Alternator also works hard at start up, especially if your Battery is loosing a lot of charge overnight and this can cause squealing that disappears when the Alternator is not working so hard.

The usual case of squealing is the fan belt, really common problem on lots of cars, be the first thing to check I would think.

It's a very long time since cars had fans driven by a belt 😄.

Maybe, nit pick if you like but alternators are driven by a belt, some of us older folk still call our vacuum cleaner a Hoover, so of course you are correct and I know nothing.

Even alternator belts wear and slip, the slipping is what may be causing the noise and is easy to check but maybe fiddly to replace.

And I will still call it a fan belt, cos it looks exactly like one.....

59 minutes ago, plumb crazy said:

I will still call it a fan belt, cos it looks exactly like one.....

From what I remember fan belts were chunky v-belts, not the flat ones that are used nowadays.

You are, of course, free to call them anything you like. My comment was intended as a light-hearted one (hence the emoji) so I'm sorry you couldn't accept it as that.

😁