I've read all the posts concerning THE whistle sound that occurs during cold starts. My 94 850T has also been doing this for about 2 years now and it is driving me absolutely crazy. It is so loud, I can hear my wife take off on cold mornings from the the stop sign a block away from our house. It is terribly embarassing when driving the car through the neighborhood.

Like everyone else reports... the sound is a moaning whistle that occurs on cold start-ups at low ambient temperatures (I'd say below 60 degrees). It increases with engine speed and disappears intermitently throughout the RPM range and during gear changes. In neutral I can modulate the throttle and find RPM's that produce a constant moaning, but the exact RPM is inconsistent. After the engine warms up, it quits.

Anyhow, I figured that I would bring it up again to see if anyone had remedied the problem yet.

Discussed suspects:

- The TURBO: From what I can gather, 240 series owners report the same issue so it doesn't seem to be turbo or 850 specific.

- The AIR PUMP: There was some discussion about it being due to a worn bearing in the air pump (warm up)... but my car (and others with the issue) doesn't have an air pump.

- The POWER STEERING PUMP: No one has ruled this out yet that I can tell, but it doesn't make sense to me that this would be the culprit.

- Dry CENTER SUPPORT BEARING on the drive-shaft: Reports are that this is a different whistle that occurs at highway speeds and quits around 70mph.

- Vacuum Related: A broad culprit... but sounds like the best place to start looking at this point.


Anyway, has anyone had any luck with this common problem?