Noise from timing belt

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:27 pm

Hi

I noticed that the water pump was leaking so being short on time I farmed out the job to my local citman.

Anyway, he replaced w/p and t/b. I picked up the car from him last night and took it a longish run through the local countryside. When I was putting the car back in the garage, I noticed a noise which turned out to be coming from the t/b. The noise is a slight 'rrrr' type noise that can be heard if you rev to just above idle (1000 rpm) and disappears at around 1100 rpm. The last time I heard a noise like that it was from an over tensioned belt on a Nova, but the noise remained all the time.

What could this noise be? I want to use the car! I don’t want to risk a fecked engine! I have taken the top timing cover off and the belt looks ok!

Cheers,

Richard.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:33 pm

I've heard that noise whenever there's been a cambelt overtightened.
It's a cross between a whirr and a whine.

Alan S

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:38 pm

Yep, That's the one!

But is it safe? Thats the 1 million dollar question!

Stewart (oily!) · Post by **Stewart (oily!)** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:58 pm

It should not be possible to overtighten the belt, the tensioner is spring loaded and automatically sets the right tension, are the covers in place properly?
Stewart

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:03 pm

Hi

I thought it would be impossible to overtension belt also, as tensioning is automatic.

Yes, covers are all secure!.

cheers,

Richard.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 3:18 pm

I questioned a posting a couple of weeks back on I think it was Andyspares where someone had a similar problem and made the statement that they had released the spring tension but then added a bit more "to be on the safe side" which I thought was a misnomour and asked for the reasoning, particularly when they had this symptom afterwards.
From memory the logic was they were afraid of it "skipping a tooth" Now tell me, of all the cars you've ever seen, how many have ever 'skipped a tooth' on a cambelt or a timing chain?
I've never struck it, yet it's the very first thing they always come up with for a thousand problems; a bit like saying "Mr Jones died yesterday" and responding with "Did he get struck by lightning?" Short of a duffed bearing, it has to be over tensioning. Another thought of course is, do the belts on those models have a directional requirement and if so, is it on assabout?

Alan S

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 4:14 pm

Hi

The belt does have arrows. The arrows are in the direction of travel.

If it was a duff idler wheel bearing, I hope my citman would of picked this up during fitting, and fitted a new one! If it was this would the noise not be present all the time?

I forgot to mention the noise is not present on cold strart (engine cold) but will appear after approx 1 min of running and get progressively noisy.

Stewart (oily!) · Post by **Stewart (oily!)** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 4:51 pm

The only cit belt I have seen skip a tooth is on a 1.6 petrol with the bloody awkward cambelt tensioner needeing re-tensioning after 500 miles, and a diesel 1.7 where the tensioner/spring assembly was rusted solid, have you checked the alt belt, mine is chirping but a squirt of silicone spray shuts it up instantly.
Stewart

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 5:27 pm

Definitely not the alt belt. Noise is clearly coming from cambelt area. Engine is 1.6 petrol

Stewart (oily!) · Post by **Stewart (oily!)** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 7:02 pm

AHA! the petrol one is the one with the nasty tensioner, read the BOL ,you can set the tension any way you like , supposedly measuring the tension with citroen tool number%%%%%% then doing it all again after 500 miles, these can be set too tight, or too loose.
Stewart

Mr B · Post by **Mr B** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 7:31 pm

Deffo belt too tight. I did it on the 205D, I managed to over tighten it

and it howled like hell! Let it go a bit and it when nice and quiet.

richard · Post by **richard** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:50 pm

Safe to drive to my cit man?

He will do this no probs for me on moday hopefully.

I thought that the belt would howl all the time if it was to tight, not just in a certain rev band

Stewart (oily!) · Post by **Stewart (oily!)** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:31 pm

Dont blame the citman, these are a right bugger
Stewart

richard · Post by **richard** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:02 am

No way am I blaming him. All work he does is 1'st class and he is a reasonable guy to deal with. He knows more about Cits than any dealer does! Anyway, it would have been hard for him to notice this as the belt isnt noisy all the time.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:56 am

I would be game enough to drive it to him if it were me, let's put it that way.
I have heard it said that this apparent tightening is caused due to expansion caused by the engine heating up.
I had the noise with the Xantia 2.0i petrol and my son had a similar one on his BX16V, both cured by belt adjustment and the TZi with a 1.9 engine which has the same tensioner arrangement as the 1.6 was an absolute bloody dog to get right.

Alan S