The Landy (Defender 110, Range Rover 3.9 V8, LT85) has been chirping occasionally for a few months, recently it's become continuous and louder - it's driving me round the bend and as we're 3 weeks away from driving to Italy, it's a bit of a worry that something's going to fail. I was pretty sure it was either a belt or the water pump/ alternator/PAS pump bearing, but I ran the engine with all 3 belts removed yesterday and it still did it :-( The chirps keep time with engine speed, not road speed & still happens when we're stationary so I don't think it's from the gearbox or transmission. When it was more occasional it seemed to happen once the engine was warm, but now it's all the time.
Digging around the web, I found two possibilities - a tappet on it's way out (they are Britpart from before I knew better and I've always thought one was a bit noisy) or a mounting rubber (this from a Harley Davidson forum!). I'm also wondering about the clutch release bearing, although depressing the clutch makes no difference, which I'd expect it to do so if it was the clutch release bearing.
Any other ideas?
TIA,
AndyC.