[Trybal]

The other day i changed the timing belt pully on my car. And now its making a rattling "metal on metal loos slapping" noise. Its only when motor is being worked like under loads. Ans it seems to be comming from my left cam cover towards the middle or back? i was told it might be a valve spring thats broken. would anyone share there opinions with me?

 

[trdmkii]

you mean a valve spring......thats possible....you might be able to check that with ease...just remove the valve covers...those gaskets probably need replaced anyways and take a flash light and inspect all your lifters rocker arms and the valve springs......you should be able to see them with decent visibility...any body else got anything better?

 

[williamb82]

well, if you just changed the harmonic balancer, id check to make sure its tourqed properly, soundls like it could be wobbling on the crank.
william

 

[Trybal]

alright im not the brightest person alive? I changed the harmonic balancer? i thought it was the timing belt pully? and i have it lose so it can float around like its supposed to

 

[williamb82]

um, if you mean the pulley on the front of the crank, that is the crank pulley/harmonic balancer and it isnt supposed to float at all. there is a half moon shaped peice of metal that goes in the crank, its called a key. it is supposed to keep that pulley from "floating on the crank" and then the front crank bolt should be replaced with a new one and tourqed to 195lb/ft
william

 

[Trybal]

I changed the bearing right under the cams, all you have to to is take off the dust cover to get to it, its the bearing with the spring on it, i think its supposed to float because there is a spring on it, i didn't even have access to the crank when i did this, could that still be the problem?

 

[williamb82]

oh, and the reason the noise is coming from the middle of the engine is cause your harmonic balancer is floating around and throwing the engine out of balance so the main's in the middle of the engine are probably knocking under load. not good.
william

 

[williamb82]

never mind, you changed the timing belt tensioner. thats a whole different story. yeah, id check for a busted valve spring and check the timing too.
william

 

[williamb82]

btw, did you make sure the timing marks were lined up correctly before you reset the tensioner? its possible that the belt is a tooth off on one of the cams, but also, your timing is prolly just a bit too far advanced.
william

 

[Trybal]

well i guess it could be possible that a tooth is off, but before i changed it i marked where the belt was on the tooth on both cams. but it might have slipped earlier. Could or would that make the sound im describing because its only under loads, i would think it would be there all the time. And how could my timing get messed up?

 

[sloopercat]

No, the tensioner is not supposed to "float". The spring sets the tension only, you have to tighten the center bolt to hold it in place.

You only changed the tensioner pulley, not the belt, right?

I hope the rattling sound was not the valves hitting the pistons as the cam timing could have been way off.

 

[Trybal]

i had to take the timing belt just off the cam gears, not the crank. is there a way i can take offf my dust cover and make sure taht they are lined up? no i didn't change the whole belt

 

[sloopercat]

Dust cover? You can pull the top half of the front cover off, that is where the timing marks are. You did that when you changed the tensioner pulley, right? Based on the questions you have, I would get a repair manual. It is possible to do severe damage if you don't know the proper procedures.

 

[Trybal]

well i marked the belt and the cams before removing, and placed the belt back exactly wear it was previously. And i just checked the marks on the timing, they look perfectly lined up to me. so im guessing its on that.

 

[cartman]

No, the tensioner is not supposed to "float". The spring sets the tension only, you have to tighten the center bolt to hold it in place.

You only changed the tensioner pulley, not the belt, right?

I hope the rattling sound was not the valves hitting the pistons as the cam timing could have been way off.

coreect me if i'm wrong..but i thought our engines were designed so that that valves wont hit the pistons if your timing is way off or if your timing belt suddenly breaks.

 

[sloopercat]

I can't remember if these are interference engines or not. You might be right. Hopefully the knock sound our friend had was nothing more than the tensioner slapping around. If I understand correctly, it sounds like he did not tighten the bolt that locks the tensioner down. Others have taken stabs at it, I could be just as wrong. The descriptions are a little ambiguos.

 

[CJSREDPRA]

We have Non-Interference motors.

For the Noob's here, here's a review:

"Most" Toyota motors w/ Timing Belts: Non-Interference.

"Most" Toyota motors w/ Timing Chains: Interference.

 

[Trybal]

ive tried it both ways, the tensioner that is. tight and lose. it made the noise both times. So im resorting to a real engine problem. I am hoping its just a valve spring because taht won't be too hard to fix

 

[sloopercat]

Ahh, the infamous red herring.

 

[Dave A.]

The M-series engines are non-interference engines so you won't bend or break anything if the valve timing or timing belt is out of whack. How does your engine run in general, aside from the noise that it makes under load? I would think that a broken valve spring would make some serious racket even at idle since the valve springs don't have damper springs or an inner spring. Something else could be out of whack in the valvetrain though. Did your engine start making this racket "before" you removed the crank pulley and /or changed the timing belt tensioner? :?: