I just changed my D16Z6 timing belt. Am I supposed to retension the belt after a few hundred miles? I noticed a little rubber grommet over the tensioner bolt.

I assume that I would just need to loosen the tensioner bolt and turn the crankshaft a few teeth counterclockwise, then retighten the bolt. Is that correct?

On a related note, the engine is making noise now at 2200 and 2700 RPM. I really hope it is just a heat shield or maybe the the alternator going out. It's pretty loud though, and has me worried that I messed up the the install some way. Any ideas?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sturmcrow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just changed my D16Z6 timing belt. Am I supposed to retension the belt after a few hundred miles? I noticed a little rubber grommet over the tensioner bolt.

I assume that I would just need to loosen the tensioner bolt and turn the crankshaft a few teeth counterclockwise, then retighten the bolt. Is that correct?

On a related note, the engine is making noise now at 2200 and 2700 RPM. I really hope it is just a heat shield or maybe the the alternator going out. It's pretty loud though, and has me worried that I messed up the the install some way. Any ideas? </TD></TR></TABLE> Its beter to be safe than sorry IMO. I would re-tension it after a few hundred. Just to be sure.. Loosen the tensioner bolt 180° then turn the crank counterclockwise until the belt passes 3 teeth on the cam gear.. Retighten the tensioner to spec. I believe it's like 13 lb-ft off the top of my head. I can go check if needed, can anyone confirm or you already know?

My car makes noise too. You need to describe this noise better. Where does it seem to come from? Is it a pinging, rattling, grinding? Under what specific conditions does this occur?

You should have faith in your own work but if you don't just make sure everything is at TDC and no teeth were jumped on the belt..

 

It's a rattling sound, but unlike that I've heard from heat shields in the past. The engine runs just fine, with no decrease in power like I would expect with bad timing. As **** retentive as the ECU is, I expect it would throw a CEL if the timing were off. Is that not true?

During the install, I lowered the engine a couple inches to get access to the crank bolt with an impact wrench. I suspect that the noise may be resulting from maybe bending something at the cat. converter or messing up the flex joint or something like that.

On the other hand, I also removed the starter to try holding a screwdriver against the teeth while I turned the crank bolt (which totally did not work), and I was initially concerned that I may have dropped something into the bell housing. Luckily, the noise is far too repeatable for that.

I asked because I'm about to put 2000 miles on my car, and I'm a tad concerned that it may be something bad.

 

Do you know what detonation sounds like? You don't have a knock sensor, so the only cel you could throw for detonation is from the o2 for running lean, but whether or not you get that cel depends on the condition of the o2. Have you put a timing light on it since you did the belt?

 

The tensioner is an auto-tensioner. Follow the procedure outlined in the Helms and tension will be set right.