Whiney sound after changing timing belt *with video*

[instanoodles]

Changed my timing belt back in august with a gates timing belt kit, the car was not making this noise at all then right after installing the new timing belt, idler and tensioner it started to make this sound. The sound is much quieter when cold and get louder until the point in the movie. When driving it kinda sounds like a super charger, hard to hear when inside driving unless the windows are down and no music is playing. It is is much louder when driving by a wall that the sound can bounce off of or stopped beside a curb. Last weekend I took the timing cover off to check if it was tensioned too tight and it was according to the tension marks but not by much. The triangle tips were not perfectly in line but the triangles were still over lapping each other, I lowered the tension and its perfect now. What would cause this sound since the tensioner and idler are brand new, I checked the belt to see if it was rubbing and it also seems fine. I am hoping that this is nothing serious, I don't really want to have to change the timing belt again... Timing belt noise - YouTube

[avguy]

I think if anything had been significantly wrong with the timing belt install, either the car would run poorly or else the belt would have broken sometime during the fairly long interval of time since the work was done. It must have looked fine when you took the cover off? Seems like a likely candidate for the noise is something within the serpentine belt group. Did you check to make sure the ribs of the belt are correctly positioned in the groves of all the pullys? (especially the underside that you can't see). If you also replaced the serp belt, perhaps the new one has a slight imperfection, or is off-sized. Did you try squirting water on the belt to see if the noise changes or goes away momentarily?. You could also try using a stethoscope, piece of hose, or even a piece of wood to try to find the acutal location of the noise and pinpoint the part that's making it.

[classic67]

When you replaced the belt did you replace the tensioner if you did make sure it i still lined up the timing belt could be rubbing on the cover. but you would have to take the lower and upper cover to see this.

[instanoodles]

Yeah I took the upper and the lower cover off to check the tension of the timing belt last weekend and I checked for rubbing on the belt and belt material on the covers, found none. As for the serpentine belt, the belt was replaced when I changed the timing belt. I just find it weird that when I was recording the sound it got louder when I opened up the upper timing belt cover. To cover my bases I replaced the serpentine belt tensioner pulley and ac idler pulley which did nothing. I will have to try the water trick and listen for a change or maybe even take the belt off and run the car for a bit and see what happens. I do have a mechanics stethoscope I could use to check the timing tensioner and idler pulley, just nervous about running the car with the covers off but this would be a last ditch effort before changing the parts out again.

[petrified.rabbit]

you will be ok without the covers, i would hope its not bad aftermarket parts forcing you to do the job again, but i have seen a few NEW bad water pumps get installed, and they whined.

[instanoodles]

Im thinking it was actually just too tight. I went back at it today and checked the belt using the 90 twist method on the longest section of the belt. When I twisted it I could barely get 45 degrees on the belt so I released tension and adjusted it so you could twist the belt 90 degrees. Took the car for a drive and the sound is pretty much gone, at idle you cannot hear it at all unlike in the video and when I rev the engine it is hard to make the sound out over the noise of the engine. I may just go and buy an new tensioner and idler pulley, install them and tension it to 90 twist cause I think the damage to the tensioner is already done. It has been driven like this for about 6000kms.

[classic67]

when you replaced it did you back it off after you set the tensioner to max

[instanoodles]

Sorry, do you mean did I back the tension off after setting it to max on the tensioner? If so no I didn't. When I installed the belt I lined up all the marks, put the belt on, tensioned it enough that I could rotate the crank manually. After that I did 2 full rotations back to TDC, checked the tension on the tensioner, tensioned it so that both marks covered each other on the tensioner then did two more full rotations. Once back at TDC I checked the tension again, both triangle were on top of each other so I put the car all back together.

[classic67]

thats what happened then if you go through the timing belt thread again it will tell you.

With the water pump tool or pliers, rotate the water pump until pointer A lines up with notch C. Tighten the water pump down. Make sure your markings on the belt and pulleys still line up exactly! If not, you need to remove the belt and try again. Then using a 1/2" ratchet or breaker bar, rotate the crankshaft pulley clockwise exactly two turns. When you are done, the crankshaft notch should again be pointing straight down, and the two camshaft pulley notches should be facing directly at each other. Obviously your markings will no longer match up. You are doing this to evenly distribute the tension in the belt.

Now, loosen the water pump bolts. Once again using the water pump tool, relieve tension until pointer A aligns exactly with pointer B. Tighten up the water pump bolts. You are done!

[classic67]

hope all goes well with this.