please help I cant afford my civic to go down. I took it to midas to and they adjusted the timing and retightend the belt. the belt is brand new. They said they checked all pulleys and belt and eveything was tight and normal. Befor I took the car to them the belt for some reason became very loose. had it towed to them and they retightend and said the tensioner could be giving out. they also said wait 6 months and the sound should go away so the belt could have time to settle or somthing. are the full of it or has anyone had there timing sound like this?

 

"This video does not exist."

Why post it anyways if it isn't your car...?

 

because its the exact sound mine is making

 

If you want to get ripped off, leave it with Midas. They will suggest the most expensive "fix" they can think of.

And that does NOT sound normal.

 

That sounds like a belt rubbing against a plastic cover. Don't use other people's pictures and videos for YOUR car - their issue and yours might not be the same, and what solves their problem might just make yours worse.

Post a video of YOUR car, then remove the upper and lower timing covers and post pictures of the belt, as well as the insides of the covers.

 

yea when they said wait 6 months and sound willl go away i knew they were full of ****. im just thinking if they just over tightend it or its the tensioner

 

sounds like your belt is already loose, my suggestion.. spend the $30 to get a chiltons, a timing belt proceedure will take them half the day and they wont get it right. the chatter is comming from the valves being out of adjustment. The howling is the timing belt contacting the outer cover. People new to timing belts are prone to setting timing and then feeding it incorrectly, hence the chiltons manual. Any shop that tells you that it should take 6 months for your timing belt to "set in" should be stripped of their ASE certs and given a job as a hobo. Did you ask them if they would warranty your interferance engine if the timing belt goes? My advice either take it to another shop for a diagnosis or take a day off and try it yourself. Tensioners dont slip unless the jacka** adjusting the belt doesnt know what he is doing. Also look at your receipt and see what they actually charged you for, a new tensioner will make no sound... they may have scammed you for $500 and only put 27 dollars of parts into it.

 

This is why I never pay anyone else to work on my cars. You don't know their level of competence or what they did to your car.

The FSM is a free download. Get your hands dirty so you'll know it's done correctly.

 

yea i took it to them in hope the ase certs were accuart and trustworthy guess not. anyways the belt for some reason got very loose to the point where you could take the belt off the cam pullley. i knew somthing was wrong to i towed it to them. they charged me 475 to drop the motor and retighten the belt. they replaced nothing, thats what pissed me off because for all this the motor was quite no howling no nothing.

 

That's interesting being my new timing belt installed and set by a Honda Factory Trained technician had a whine to it for at least 3 months. It's not as pronounced now that the belt has lots of miles put on it but the Tech was satisfied when I told him all I heard was the belt whine after the install and valve adjustment.

Sounded similiar to the video. One thing I've noted, sound in video quite often is magnified over what you physically hear in person. I'm willing to bet the belt whine of the video doesn't sound so loud in person as it does in that video.

I noticed this phenomena when I recorded the tappets and the mild knocking of my wife's motor which came out in the video as a hard racket of knocking.

Just saying.....

 

well i have alldata so ill look at the procedure and do it myself.... ase certs dont mean anything in this city anymore it seems like

 

lets just say when i go on the freeway it sounds like a supercharger. the howling is quit noticeable while driving in the city as well

 

I had a belt replace and it whined, but no where near as loud as that and it did subside over time. I don't think this is the same things, however, OP needs to post HIS OWN video!

 

That might be too tight. I know the thought of supercharger belt is what I thought of when I listened to mine but I mostly heard it when I had the hood up or only in city with the windows down. I wouldn't hear it on the freeway over my exhaust plus I don't usually float down the freeway with my windows open.

Grabbing a video of your car and uploading it to youtube will help the members here to decipher.

Or just reset it yourself so you know everything is set right and the torques are correct on the tensioner bolt and mount bolts and call it a day.

 

Watch "98 civic timing howl" on YouTube
98 civic timing howl:

This is mine

 

Not normal.

 

Yeah, sounds like you have something rubbing where it shouldn't be. Pull the covers, take pictures, post pictures.

 

why would they drop a motor to tighten the belt? the tensioner is accessible from the top side of the engine, takes 10 minutes to adjust it. you got butt raped.

 

i guess there reasoning was to check the tentioner and spring and everything to make sure it all was tight
they said everything eas tight though ill pull the bottom covor tomarrow or on my day off and see if its rubbing on somthing

 

tomcat what did your problem end up being? i posted a video of my car also so
yea i know everything you just mentioned what yours did on freeway is exactly what im experiencing

 

Read what I posted. That's pretty much their MO. The one around here closed up when people got wise to their BS.

 

I had a similar issue where an Acura mechanic did a timing belt job for my integra, this was way back when I didn't know how easy it was to do it. Had that same similar whine. I checked mechanical timing and it was dead on so no worries there, also check to see if the belt was wobbling by removing the top timing cover and let it run, nope. So could've been that belt just whipping away in the air.

FYI sold integra with the same belt and the whine actually did subside.

 

i guess the slight whine happens, but ive done at least 15 d series timing jobs and have never had it. OP- sounds like the hacks didn't properly tension the belt the first time. belts stretch a little, but the tensioner is enough to compensate for it. it would never get that loose on its own.

 

Mine wasn't a problem. It was just the belt running through everything properly and humming on the roller. Coupled with a new OEM water pump. Maybe between the two it whined a lot like that and just settled out with 3 months of my aggressive lead foot sort of driving when roads permit. Rush hour just doesn't provide safe lead foot driving.

Just popping the top cover can give you better insight if there is a rubbing issue being you should see rubber dust all over and see some sort of visible signs on the belt itself. If there isn't any dust, then you may just run through the normal timing belt tensioner adjustment and give her a spin after.

 

I am wondering if the washers that sandwich the timing belt are turned the opposite way or one is turned the opposite way. They both have a flare to them that is supposed to be away from the belt. If it is towards the belt it will rub against something like the timing cover, belt, or engine perhaps. After 6 months, it would be likely it would wear away whatever it is rubbing against.

Edit: thought about it, it would not touch the timing belt cover. If the washer was turned the wrong way, it would be further away from the cover, not closer. It would touch the hell out of that belt though. And a bad idler pulley or an over tighten belt would also cause a noise. Over tighten belt would prematurely wear out the water pump bearing.