My '98 Accord with 248k miles has been noisy under the hood, especially with a cold engine. Took it to my mechanic and was told the timing belt is hitting the cover, and there's a broken / missing motor mount too. The repair estimate is $1,500 (parts & labor). No work has been done yet.
I've been religious with timing belt maintenance and had it and the water pump replaced by a different shop at 100k and 200k miles. So if the work was actually done, the belt has only 48k miles on it. What are the possible causes of the belt hitting the cover? Is it possible to adjust the tensioner and eliminate the cover slap? Or is my only choice to pay the shop to dig into the motor and find out the root cause? I'm not as concerned about the motor mount as I am the timing belt. Who knows, the mount could have been MIA for years.
Thanks in advance.

 

have the valves ever been adjusted ? is it just the valves being loud ?

if the belt was done 48k ago I wouldn't think there should be any belt issue but if you can, take it back to the shop that did it and have them check it, perhaps they will be nice and do something

 

Thanks for your reply Homes & Manny, the noise has nothing to do with the valves - it's just the belt hitting the cover.
I'd take the car back to the shop that did the work at 200k but I lost confidence with them long ago, so they won't see me in their shop again.

 

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