- Location
- Santa Ana, SoCal
Grab a seat everyone...posted this on CX probably should have started here first. About 3 weeks ago i changed out my water pump due to leaking at the weep hole. Since i was in there that deep i decided to change out the timing belt as it had been about 45k miles and didnt want to do it again soon. Put the new pump in, new belt, and new tensioner (all dealer parts). When I put the belt back on i made sure it was at TDC, all marks lined up except the crank because there is no mark on the housing. Popped off the distributor cap and it pointed to #1. Put it all back together, filled with coolant, got the air out and drove it around... all good. test drove it and everything sounded fine, wasnt lacking power, wasnt running rough, no weird noises... Until a week later, I was out on a trail with the crew from CF and i started to hear a ticking noise. very faint at first but figured it was just my imagination. drove around for a bit and by the end of the day it had gotten louder. Looked under the hood and couldnt see anything that might be causing it took a closer listen and sounded like it was coming from the underneath the valve cover. parked it till the next weekend tore it apart to where i could see the timing belt from above. lined the crank pulley to TDC and it seemed like the passenger side cam gear was a tooth back and the driver side was a tooth ahead. felt the belt and it seemed to be loose so i figured i didnt tigthen the belt enough so i tore it down completely and checked TDC by taking out the #1 spark plug. looked at the timing marks on the cams and they were perfectly lined up. counted teeth and found 40 between the cams and 43 between the driver cam and crank. i tightened up the belt a bit more and started it up... noise is still there. i was told it could be a bad valve lifter to an exhaust leak or a bad harmonic balancer... take a listen and let me know what you guys think. thanx in advance!
