Odd Noise After Timing Belt Job

[CapedCadaver]

Originally Posted by LvR

Let me state the obvious and incur the wrath of the community:

This is not a job to experiment with - you either do it right or you don't do it at all.

A loose belt will at best allow you to retention it if nothing has happened - at worst it will jump a tooth or more or even come right off requiring an engine replacement at this age.

A too tight belt will at best allow you to slack off on the tension if nothing happened and it was only noisy - at worst the belt itself can break or more likely the nose of the crank can be broken right off (see the huge number of threads on this topic here already) also requiring an engine replacement.

Don't F**k around with this - if you are lucky to have a motor still running with an improperly adjusted belt and didn't understand the manual the first time round, make damn sure you do it right the second time round by removing the covers and following the manual - the fact that you guys are asking all sorts of funky questions leads me to believe any other method is bound to end in misery as a result of inexperience.

to be honest, i didn't actually do this by the FSM (except the torque spec on the locknut). I just put the belt on the same way my uncle did on my car.. i never saw them use any sort of force-measuring device so i didn't use one either. as far funky questions... well, wiking has some funky methods, but most of the time his endeavours are successful so i wanted to be sure i understood what he was saying. But given that i'm 99% sure i'm going to have to re-tighten the belt anyhow, yea, i'll pull the covers. It just figures that the one time i underestimate the necessary level of precision of something is the one time i pick the WRONG thing to underestimate.

[LvR]

Absolutely nothing wrong with Wiking's suggestions either here or elsewhere - IF AND WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND THE OPERATION AND INTERACTION OF ALL THE MECHANICALS INVOLVED - I use many of the same methods to save time, but experience and understanding the implications of one's actions plays a huge role here.

[Wiking]

Originally Posted by CapedCadaver

to be honest, i didn't actually do this by the FSM (except the torque spec on the locknut). I just put the belt on the same way my uncle did on my car.. i never saw them use any sort of force-measuring device so i didn't use one either. as far funky questions... well, wiking has some funky methods, but most of the time his endeavours are successful so i wanted to be sure i understood what he was saying. But given that i'm 99% sure i'm going to have to re-tighten the belt anyhow, yea, i'll pull the covers. It just figures that the one time i underestimate the necessary level of precision of something is the one time i pick the WRONG thing to underestimate.

Now pls tell me which 'method' is funky? A belt tightening becomes only an issue when observed via bottle bottom...

Tension checkup; if one cant do that just prying the cover top, then its best to let others tow it to stealership for the teens.

[Matt93SE]

Wikings methods on the timing belt are spot-on. I've been doing timing belts for 15 years and that's the way I do them too. that's how a very experienced mechanic (and well qualified- not just a hack shop grease monkey) taught me, showing me the FSM for some other vehicles while he was doing it.

Belt tension checks are pretty much an industry standard. Nissan has some other strange methods of checking the tension, but this method works 100% of the time.


And also as he said, timing belts are NOT something to "learn on". If you've never done one, have someone that has help you through it. This is not a place to screw up. the potential risk is days of labor and hundreds or thousands of $ in repair costs to replace the engine. If you're lucky you *might* be able to rebuild, but 12 valves at $25 each + head gaskets + head job + valve guides + etc etc etc = about $900 for a cheapie rebuild.

That's a lotta hassles because you weren't sure of what you're doing.

[CapedCadaver]

Originally Posted by Wiking

Now pls tell me which 'method' is funky? A belt tightening becomes only an issue when observed via bottle bottom...

Tension checkup; if one cant do that just prying the cover top, then its best to let others tow it to stealership for the teens.

i just thought it a bit 'funky' to check the tension without removing the cover. but being that you actually have a fixed reference point (top of the cover), that lets you be even more precise than you would have with the covers off, in terms of measuring deflection.

Originally Posted by Matt93SE

Wikings methods on the timing belt are spot-on. I've been doing timing belts for 15 years and that's the way I do them too. that's how a very experienced mechanic (and well qualified- not just a hack shop grease monkey) taught me, showing me the FSM for some other vehicles while he was doing it.

Belt tension checks are pretty much an industry standard. Nissan has some other strange methods of checking the tension, but this method works 100% of the time.


And also as he said, timing belts are NOT something to "learn on". If you've never done one, have someone that has help you through it. This is not a place to screw up. the potential risk is days of labor and hundreds or thousands of $ in repair costs to replace the engine. If you're lucky you *might* be able to rebuild, but 12 valves at $25 each + head gaskets + head job + valve guides + etc etc etc = about $900 for a cheapie rebuild.

That's a lotta hassles because you weren't sure of what you're doing.

well the motor hasn't shown any signs of trouble so far. he's been driving it since september like that...so i guess 6-8k miles. Depending how smoothly things go on thursday and friday, i should be able to have him come over here and i can fix the tension, no harm no foul.

I did watch someone else do one before (actually it was on my car, in mid-2007 before i was brave enough to perform tasks like this), but either they didn't check the tension, or i just wasn't looking when they did.