The Lotus Grand Tourers

I had my new cambelt tensioner bearing installed along with all new belts including the cambelt. This last week I took the car on a 500 mile round trip to Cape Town, but I noticed after the first 100 odd miles a screech / squeal coming from the front of the engine. I stopped the car and felt for excessive heat on belts and bearings, but there was none and I continued on my journey. The squeal would come and go, but more there than not and every now and then I would stop the car, switch off, and check for excessive heat.

Arriving back at home and taking off the bonnet I found that the squeal was coming from the brand new tensioner bearing. I gave the centre of the bearing a quick spray with penetrating oil and the squeal immediately disappeared.

I am wondering if this noise could be caused by the rubber front of the bearing running against the bearing itself.

Do you think that I should get another bearing just to be on the safe side or have you any suggestions.

I've replaced mine three times and not encountered the problem. I assume that the bearing spun freely before it was fitted. How easy was it to fit the bearing onto the eccentric carrier? Could the squealing be due to a trace of muck that somehow got pushed into the seal? Might be worth checking it by starting the engine from cold and checking the temperature of the bearing after a couple of minutes.