Ford Focus Auxilliary drivebelt squeal

[curium]

My 2001 Ford Focus LX 1.6 (with air con) has got a squeal coming from the auxilliary drivebelt area. It's most pronounced first thing in the morning and can dissapear totally on long drives.

A friend reckons this is not an uncommon problem on the focus but the local dealer denies this and says they can't give me a price without me bringing it in.

Anyone here familiar with this problem? Is this just a case of replacing the belt or will it involve the tensioner and idle pulley etc?

Cheers!

 

[BigWeeez]

ive never worked on a focus myself, but i would say just try a belt. if it cures the problem, then bonus! if not your 1 step closer to the problem. if it comes to a new tensioner or pulley, your always best putting a new belt on while at it anyway

 

[heliosuk]

I think you'll find this is a known problem. If I correctly remember, Ford spent a lot of time on this. I think the fix was going from a flat belt with V sections to a belt with U or square sections or vice versa, possibly even a tensioner change. Ask the dealer to look at Microcat and compare the variants year to year. Obviously you'd need to change pulleys etc if it was a belt change. There was something definately done though as I remember building the cars to test it. Don't know if it was put into production though. Can't believe the fix wasn't.