Whistling noise from a Clubman

[MiniDeLux]

I'm going to post this topic in the hopes that it is helpful for someone. In May (yes, it has taken this long to resolve the problem) my 2009 diesel Clubman developed a strange noise. The car was assembled somewhere in March or April of 2009. At the time of the noise, the car had about 60,000 km on it.

Standing in front of the car, the noise originated from the left hand side of the engine compartment. It was localized to the area around the timing belt. It sounded like a whistling/squealing, but almost similar to someone drawing very short strokes over a violin (like "deeep deeep deeep deeep", almost stocatto). The noise occurred only after the car was warmed up, but it depended on the outside (i.e. ambient) temperature. For example, on a very hot day, the noise would start much sooner than on a cooler day. (This caused me no end of pain when trying to replicate the noise for the dealer). The noise exclusively occurred during idle, approximately 900 rpm on the diesel engine. Slowly pressing the accelerator would make the noise disappear. However, it would return when the rpms hit 900 again.

Took it in to the dealership and they diagnosed it as a problem with the timing belt (the diesel engines have a belt, not a chain). I told them I thought it was the water pump. During the first service they changed the timing belt and tensioner. The day after the car was fine. The second day after the noise started again. There was no spillage of coolant on the timing belt, and I never noticed a decrease in the engine coolant level.

Due to delays in servicing and parts ordering, the car has just been serviced now for the water pump. I am going to pick it up on Monday with the hope that the noise is resolved. If so, I will post on this thread.

I thought this would be useful for people with 2009 diesel Clubmans experiencing something similar.


UPDATE: I have driven the car now for about 500km since picking it up from the dealers. The water pump was replaced and I can no longer hear the noise. Dealer mentioned that the water pump looked a little "worn".