A few weeks ago I posted a message about a strange whirring noise from my 1995 940 (http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/?id=720845).

“Can anyone please help me to diagnose the source of what I can only describe as a whirring sound which comes from somewhere in the engine.

It occurs for a short time immediately after the engine has been started and disappears after a couple of minutes or so. It only occurs when the car has been standing overnight and when the engine is cold and it seems to coincide with the recent change in weather and drop in air temperature (although that may be a coincidence!).”

We still have the noise and have not diagnosed its source yet.

The noise remains when the fan belts are removed, so that rules out the alternator, fan, water pump and power steering pump.

The local Volvo dealer were certain that the noise was linked to the timing belt, so they replaced the timing belt and tensioning bearing – but the noise is still there.

Since noises are very difficult to describe, I managed to make a recording of it using an ancient portable cassette machine and I have now upload it to a web page as an mp3 file (the file size is about 1.5Mb in all).

This is the link to the page:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jd.guest/Volvo_noises/index.htm

I would be very grateful of any further advice and perhaps listening to this recording may help.

Many thanks - Jonathan