Erm...'gremlin' Engine Noise

[rambler]

hi everyone

for 3 1/2 years now my 2001 d4d has made some very strange noises from engine bay.if you remember the film 'gremlins' years ago.

the almost 'howling' noise,whoooooooo,hoooooooo,woooooo,hooooooo.

you can hear it very easily from inside my house with double glazed windows....closed(i live in a very quiet country village)

well i get this noise as described almost all the time the engine in turned on now,you can hear it easier on tickover in the car rather than when driving because of road noise.

local colchester toyota dealership told me last year that they couldnt diagnose it as it didnt 'sound' often enough!

i am taking the rav to the dealers on saturday morning to have them hear it again,with hope of them actually booking it in to silence this 'noise'

had all belts renewed about 3 years ago,new water pump fitted about a year ago,it apparently had a new clutch fitted at about the 30'000 mile mark,just before i bought it

but rav been as good as gold in the 43'000 miles ive covered in it,its now done approx 73'000 miles,never let me down.....yet

i do have a extended guarantee untill oct this year

so anybody got any ideas what this noise can be please? doesnt fluctuate with engine revs either

[bothwell_buyer]

dear baleric rambler......

from my simpleton knowledge gained from reading this forum over many hours, my first guess would be the serpentine belt??? Maybe the best guy to look for is Anchorman who I think might be on lates this week. If you look at some of his posts about the belt, pouring hot water over it and if the noise stops then it indicates the source.

Otherwise, try disntangling yer neighbour from the exhaust as he/she examines in wonderment yer brill RAV !

[anchorman]

Spooky - bothy even knows what shift I'm on!!!

It's not easy trying to diagnose noises unless you can hear them for yourself. BFR managed to record it and post it so we soon got to the bottom of that one.

I think you are describing either something resonationg which could be a rotating part like the water pump or one of the other pulleys or a panel which is vibrating at a high frequency. The other source could be vacuum escaping through a leaky pipe. It produces the inverse of blowing a piece of grass but a similar noise at least. If that is in the emission side of things you might be able to silence it by slackening the fuel cap while it is doing it (enough to let air into the tank). There was a time when the Rover 200 series was guilty of similar noises and the owners described it as mooing! In Derbyshire our cars sometimes make baaing noises but that is caused by something else.