Auxiliary drivebelt woes on '93 854

How long should I expect the auxiliary drivebelt to last on a '93 854?

I ask because my garage has just changed it after only 11K miles / 9
months since the last new one was fitted.

Seems a bit short to me that! Wondering if there's a parts warranty I
can invoke.

On a secondary note, it was put on in an attempt to cure a god-awful
rattling / squealing noise coming from the cambelt / auxiliary
drivebelt area of the engine when cold (ie, first thing in the
morning). Later on in the day, the noise tending to go away (though
not always).

With the new belt fitted, the squealing has gone (for the time being),
but not the rattling when cold.

Can anyone shed any light on this problem? I'm not too concerned about
the noise itself, but more worried that it might be a sign of an
imminent failure of something!

 

The life of the belt depends on its quality, and its working
conditions. If there is a bearing problem or pulley alignment problem,
then the life of even the best belt may end in minutes. When the belt
is off, spin each accessory by hand (including the tensioner bearing) to
see if you can determine the source of the noise. It's safe to say the
noise will get worse, and eventually something will fail. If everything
turned by the auxiliary belt is OK, then maybe it's something turned by
the timing belt. If that's the case and it fails, then you're looking
at major engine repair$.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)