Hi
As many of you following my earlier post will know, I worked out it was not the p/s pump. At one of your suggestions, I removed the timing belt cover to check the pullies/idler to make sure it was not about to fall off and trash my engine.
Everything in there looks fine and dandy. I was running the engine without the timing belt front cover on, I realised that the noise was not there anymore......ranit for several minutes and the noise did not manifest itself.
I also noticed that some parts of the timing belt rear plastic cover are VERY close to the belt.

I wonder: could it be the plastic timing belt cover (either rear part or front part) that is rubbing against the camshaft pullies/belt itself intermittently? That would explain why the noise comes and goes (maybe as the engine warms up/expands and pushes the cover nearer to the belt?)

Does anyone know where the bolts are that secure the rear part of the timing belt to the engine? It may be that one of those is loose letting the cover move a little?

Has anyone had similar experiences?
Thanks for any tips.
Cheers
Peter