I am a new member (67 years old) and have an immaculate TE Altera. When starting cold first thing, There is a grinding noise coming from the front of the engine when 1st or reverse is selected. I have checked all pulleys and accessories (alternator, AC compressor) and all are in first class condition. The noise dissapears when the engine starts to warm up and I am now suspicious of the front belt and the layout of it`s running pattern. It only has the one idler/adjuster pulley. The belt to the PS section is O.K. Any suggestions? Thanks..

hey, welcome to the site :) hopefully one of the 3rd gen guys will get up soon and leave some suggestions :), hope you enjoy your stay here

I had this with a TJ AWD - very noticible when cold, and in gear and with your foot on the brakes - it turned out to be an airconditioning belt being too loose. They fitted a new one, and its all good now.

Cheers
Heath Young

I know exactly what it is mate, its a useless pulley that is on TE models.

I removed it on mine and the problem went away straight away.

Its only a 5 minute job.

Look down the front drivers side of your engine bay and youll see 2 belts like in the picture. (Image is as if you are looking from the side on from the drivers side)

Jack the car up and remove the front drivers side tyre. There will be 2 12mm bolts holding the plastic guard at the top (may have to crawl under to see them), remove these as well as 2 plastic screws (youll see these when you remove the tyre, bottom right side of tyre well) Remove "pulley" fron the image below (1 bolt) and on the bottom of "Tensioner" you will see a bolt, tighten this bolt until the belt is tight enough that theres only ~10mm of play in it.

Reassemble and youre golden.

Let me know if you have any dramas.

Thanks, Gas Head, but my TE only has the one idler which is also the tensioner. There is no second outside idler pulley. It has always been like this from new.

Just tighten up the altenator belt a bit. They have to be quite tight otherwise they make a rumbling noise at low revs.

If it's a belt, I find spraying some WD40 on the belts will get rid of the noise for a while and identify the belt you are spraying when the noise stops so you can tighten it a bit. Doesn't need a lot of spray.