RICO_

Well the first legitimate "issue" i've had with my car now. Hearing a strange idle noise that the advisor thinks might be the pulley tensioner bearing. He was pretty quick to throw it out there and this is a guy I've done business with for a while and know and trust.

Hard to describe the noise so I'm not even gonna try. It's just a noise that I can distinguish apart from the normal engine noise that also increases in speed as I slowly give the car gas at idle.

Any thoughts on the seriousness of this issue and any techs have any experience with dealing with this? Is it a pretty expensive fix regarding labor time and parts?

ReDHaTcHyGuy

my idler pulley bearing went bad.. kinda sounded like a whine from a supercharger...

RICO_

No this is different. This isn't a whine. It's more of a pulsating noise.

blueDA9

shouldnt be to bad, a relativley simple fix. Take off belt, take off old idler pulley, put on new, put belt back on and bam, noise is gone.

RICO_

So the pulley AND bearing have to be replaced if it turns out to be the problem?

2008fijibluesi

It depends if Honda sells them as seperate units. I doubt they do, but if so, just the bearing can be replaced.

ReDHaTcHyGuy

the bearing are pressed into the pulley.. they're not that expensive ...u have to get a new pulley... how many miles do u have? u can try to get it warrentied

RICO_

Yeah I just got the news from the dealership yesterday. They are unable to warranty it under powertrain. My car has 48K miles on it. Apparently it's two things causing the problem. An "auto tensioner" and idler pulley I believe is what he said.

But what's cool is that they agreed to cover a good chunk of the cost under a dealer "goodwill". Original cost was nearly $400 and they are only asking $180 on my part. So I agreed and I'm just waiting for the parts to come in.

Looks like there still are a few dealerships left with a heart out there.

Is this a normal thing for this to occur at 48K miles? I'm not gonna lie....I do drive somewhat agressively on a somewhat frequent basis, but not all the time.

Greg50Lt

local member on here lives right down the street and he had his replaced around 20Kmiles. Mine does it some times and I can hear the noise when I pop the hood but Im not gonna fork over the cash when its really not causing any real damage. My dealer told me the noise was nothing out of the ordinary and that there was nothing wrong. I hate that damn dealer and havnt been back since they did my 3rd gear swap.

RICO_

Anybody know what Honda charges in terms of labor hours for the idler pulley replacement?

Just so I make sure the dealership isn't jerkin my chain.

i-VTEC_DOHC

when i took in my old ep3, it was $90/hr.

vladd

my tensioner pulley has been making noise at idle ever since i got the car (at 2,500 miles), i don't notice it when driving though so i haven't done anything about it. 23k miles later, the noise hasn't changed so i'm ok with it.

ajpturbopittsburgh

So in other words, you drive the **** out of the car most of the time....haha just busting your ***** rico

You are picky and particular and a customer I would not want as I am a customer that I would not want. I remember your corsport thing and your overheating. You pay attention to stuff

tapiasradiator05

mine does the same thing at idle i have almost 9k miles its kinda annoying but when i'm driving i can't hear it

RICO_

No you're right. I do drive agressively. But I've only taken my car to the drag strip twice doing one run each and I've only done a launch race once. So compared to alot of other people on this forum.....I don't consider myself an overly-agressive driver........just a spirited one.

I KNOW I'm a customer dealerships wouldn't want and for a few good reasons to. The overheating problem you mentioned was a result of me easing up on my worrying about my car.

I said to my self......."Self.......just relax and let the tech do his thing. You don't need to do it yourself. Put your car in someone else's hands and let him take care of it and leave it alone."

Soon after my car nearly overheats itself and I feel like an idiot for not doing the work myself and not paying attention to whatever the hell he did.

When I first got my Skunk2 coilovers installed...not long afterwards I heard an unusually loud knocking sound over bumps. EVERYBODY told me it was normal....coilovers are stiffer and louder.....you'll hear more noise....blah blah blah. But I said to myself............"Self.....don't ignore it. Don't let them persuade you to 'deal with it'. Send it back and have it looked at."

So I did....and it turns out that noise was caused by one of the struts being blown to absolute hell. So Skunk2 replaced it free of charge.

And I COULD have ignored this sound with my engine and said to myself...."self.........it's just normal. You worry to much. You have an Engine Torque Damper....maybe it's just transfering more sound along with the vibration. You're just being paranoid self".

And the end result ultimately would have been a possible failed idler pulley/auto tensioner and whatever comes along with that. Almost certain engine damage.

So after that I decided that it might be best to be a little more cautious about ANYTHING that seems out of the ordinary. ANYTHING. No matter how small it might be. Such as a simple barely audible idle noise. It just might save me a big f**king headache later on. Because as it turns out. I just now found out that not only was the idler pulley causing the noise. But there was a secondary noise they caught as well coming from my WATER PUMP. So now they are replacing the water pump under warranty.

Trust me. Being cautious and overly-careful about your car....no matter how annoying it may be to other people.....ends up working out better in the long run and it just might save you from a real nightmare. So this goes for everyone reading this.....if someone tells you that you worry to much about your car......tell them to shove it!

That is all!

ajpturbopittsburgh

You worry too much about your car.

RICO_

Would you rather buy a car from a person who worries too much about their car or someone who didn't give a damn about their car?

EXACTLY!!

You call it worrying to much.....I call it Attention to Detail. A military term that's basically one of the most important traits any person can develop.

Someday you'll understand.

CRXRageD

That sucks, that your car is starting to have issues. My Si is on 62K and I've been very fortunate to not have any mechanical issues since I've bought new in 06. I'm like you, when I sense something out of the ordinary in my car, especially my DD, I troubleshoot it quickly.

Based on what you have said, I have no clue if it's a pulley tensioner or waterpump. If I were in your shoes though, I would ask just multiple dealers what they think. Especially since it's semi-"warranty" work.

Not all service managers and techs have the same experience. (note: not discrediting your friend.)

RICO_

Guess what. It was BOTH. What are the odds.

Water pump is ordered and will arrive on Tuesday and be replaced under powertrain warranty. The idler pulley came out of pocket but they "goodwilled" 70% of the overall cost.

I got a second opinion done by two very good mechanics at my work.....one of which has worked on Hondas for 15 years. The dealership basically confirmed my suspicions.

All is good though. My advisor specifically got his best technician working on my car....so hopefully everything will turn out fine. If not they'll most certainly be hearing from me. This advisor knows how I am with my car. He's not dumb enough to jerk my chain.

But I've been wrong before.

P.S. - By any chance you wouldn't happen to work on Lackland A.F.B. would you CRXRageD??

ReDHaTcHyGuy

cost of the idler pulley and tensioner pully together are like 40 bucks at most, they're hosing you on labor.. id just buy the parts from like college hills honda and do it yourself

RICO_

Well the cheapest I saw these two parts was about $80 bucks combined on hondapartsdeals.com.

And I know the timing belt has to come off to replace them so I'm pretty sure there's a little bit of labor involved. Personally I really don't care at this point cause I paid $180....which is about full price for the parts and an hours worth of labor. I don't want to do the work myself because I'm not experienced in this type of work. It may be pretty straight-forward.....but I'll feel better off having a dealership do this one so that I can have the labor warranty with it.

I can call other dealerships and find out the labor time involed in this replacement and see if I really am getting hosed. But I'll wait until after my water pump warranty install before I do that and make a big deal out of it.

Does Honda have a SET labor time for all their dealerships on part installs? Or does it vary from dealer to dealer?

i-VTEC_DOHC

whats bad about that? its always good to pay attention to stuff with your car. any new noise should be a concern. hell you might even mistake a slight rod knock for valvetrain noise.


you don't worry about yours? i think you should be more worried than rico about his car since you're pushing however many psi on your turbo with stock internals to be honest.

and you know i have nothing against you what so ever, as we have discussed this perviously.

i-VTEC_DOHC

i think its set at $90/hr. unless someone can tell me different.
the 2 honda dealerships out here are at $90/hr

RICO_

No not the labor rates.....the labor TIMES. The number of hours Honda pays/charges for a particular job.

2008fijibluesi

You really couldn't sense AJP's sarcasm?

It was thicker than ever when saying RICO worries about his car too much. Read back, you'll see why he said it.

What's been up with you man? You've been weird lately.