Enjoy laughing at my misery... I did the timing belt and water pump replacement myself. When I was putting the balance shaft belt back on I could not get the sprockets to line up perfectly with the crank. The cam shaft was at TDC, but the front and rear balance shafts would not line up exactly with the crank. I got impatient and put it back together, started the car, it made a whining noise kind of like a loose belt. I tore it back apart, the cam was still at TDC with the crank, but the balance shafts were off by one tooth on the spockets. Got it back together, the car runs fine, but it whines when idling, and the idle is a little ruff but not too bad. It sounds like a bad bearing. I have driven the car 1000 miles since the replacement, but I am getting ready to sell it, and I don't want to put someone in a car that is going to give them problems that I caused.

What did I screw up, and what am I looking at replacing? Valves, balance shafts, cam shaft? I am clueless. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

wow,
this is not going to help, but I just did the timing/waterpump/tensioner on my e30 BMW and its a whiner now as well! (No balance shafts on that engine though)

Yeah, I'd like to hear people's opinion on what is wrong too!.

 

It sounds like the belt might be a little too tight. These things will whine when the belt is too tight. Sometimes they will loosen up with time, sometimes they won't.

Did it have a rough idle before you replaced the belt? How come you couldn't get the sprockets lined up? I am not sure if it was just difficult to keep them lined up, or if you couldn't get it right.

 

It idles fine, it is probably my imagination. The whining noise just makes it seem rough I guess. I guess if it runs fine nothing is wrong.

 

Belt is probably too tight, a bad idler could also contribute to the problem...

 

you do realize this thread is almost 6 years old right?