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This DIY will certainly come in handy when its time. I replaced the timing belt on my Jetta TDI, so I'm confident that I can do it on the wife's Civic (perhaps next spring?)
I believe my hex was 50 mm for crank pulley bolt. I have a 2005 civic.
So i followed this excellent timing belt DIY. Everything went perfect except for a little annoying noise. At around 1000-1500 rpm, i can hear either the water pump or the auto tensioner rub against the cover. I removed the top cover and loosened the bottom cover, and when i pull it away, the noise is gone but when i close it again something rubs. It's not the belt, i'm 99% sure its the water pump, but i can't find a position to fasten the cover bolts where it won't rub the cover..
Are there aftermarket timing belt covers??? I hate this.
I believe my hex was 50 mm for crank pulley bolt. I have a 2005 civic.
So i followed this excellent timing belt DIY. Everything went perfect except for a little annoying noise. At around 1000-1500 rpm, i can hear either the water pump or the auto tensioner rub against the cover. I removed the top cover and loosened the bottom cover, and when i pull it away, the noise is gone but when i close it again something rubs. It's not the belt, i'm 99% sure its the water pump, but i can't find a position to fasten the cover bolts where it won't rub the cover..
Are there aftermarket timing belt covers??? I hate this.
Thanks in advance to everyone.
The fuck...? You didn't put something together right - I don't have this problem at all. If you removed the top timing cover withouthaving to remove the valvecover then you didn't put the top timing cover back on right, and that's probably your issue. the timing cover goes underneath the lip on the valvecover for sealing purposes. if it was over it I could see taht causing a mis-fit.
Pictures would help. It could also be the tensioner, but I'd have to see how you did it.
"If it's so essential, ask yourself why you've been able to live without it before now."
Try doing something nice for a total stranger, then look back at your car. Notice that the good feeling you get from helping lasts all day, but you constantly have to put stuff on your car to feel better.
Yes, I took the valve cover off to remove / re-install upper cover. The whole lip thing. I have the whole timing belt procedure to under 2 hours lol. I took it apart several times and put it back together to locate the problem.
So in this picture, there is noise at 1000-1500 rpm. Again, nothing major, just an annoying light plastic grinding.
In this picture its gone. The bottom cover can only go in 1 way, and the screws ensure it is sitting in the proper position. So I have no clue how to fix this problem. I broke off the corner piece of the cover because at first i thought that's where it was coming from.
UPDATE:
So now I convinced myslef its actually not the water pump. I pushed the cover in to touch the water pump and it makes a LOUD grinding noise. What I have now is a light grinding, very light. I can hear it best when it gears down after reving to over 2000 when it gears down to below 1500 i can hear this echoing brr brrr. Might be because its a new belt. NO! Something is definitely wrong here.
I THINK it may be the auto tensioner now, because in the pic on the DIY, the belt was about 2mm off from the auto tensioner. This is how mine was when i installed it. BUT after taking it apart several times, the belt was FULLY on the auto tensioner. But its still making an annoying sound at those RPMs ...
it may be a piece of the lower dust cover's rubber seal that broke and is sitting under the crank timing belt pully or some other piece of debris under the dust cover rubbing against the timing belt at some point. i bet its some small part of plastic or rubber in the dust cover. anyhow a sure fix would be to just break it back down, remove the lower dust cover, find whatever is in there rubbing/remove it, and reinstall everything. you did put back the lower dust cover rubber seal and didn't discard it?(although im not sure the cover mounting bolts would actually be able to pull the cover close enough to rub on something before they bottomed out?) just some thoughts good luck
a stretch... maybe the water pump's shot and the pully has actually moved further away from the engine?????
Last edited by grantgilley; 2 Weeks Ago at 01:57 AM.
Reason: addition
Thanks for your input. Problem still not resolved but after asking several mechanics they seem of the opinion that its just the belt and that it needs to break in. Well, I will drive for 3000 kms and see if it goes away. Nothing else I can do now. Took it apart 4 and put it back together 4 times now. Its kind of going away. Mechanics might be right ... we'll see.
Hey, guys. First, thanks for the great DIY, reddawnman. I decided to do it. Everything went as expected. Hellishly (not quite done, I'm pretty slow, and also had to build my toolkit along the way, which sucks when 3 broke trying to remove the crank pulley bolt, so I'm just finishing day 2, with everything now removed, coming back tomorrow to reassemble).
I thought I'd add some neat diagrams I found looking for further information on how to ensure TDC (I'm very paranoid, and DON'T want to mess this up). I found them to be a nice supplement to the descriptions provided by reddawnman. Hope it helps someone.
Hey, guys. First, thanks for the great DIY, reddawnman. I decided to do it. Everything went as expected. Hellishly (not quite done, I'm pretty slow, and also had to build my toolkit along the way, which sucks when 3 broke trying to remove the crank pulley bolt, so I'm just finishing day 2, with everything now removed, coming back tomorrow to reassemble).
I thought I'd add some neat diagrams I found looking for further information on how to ensure TDC (I'm very paranoid, and DON'T want to mess this up). I found them to be a nice supplement to the descriptions provided by reddawnman. Hope it helps someone.
"If it's so essential, ask yourself why you've been able to live without it before now."
Try doing something nice for a total stranger, then look back at your car. Notice that the good feeling you get from helping lasts all day, but you constantly have to put stuff on your car to feel better.
Thanks for your input. Problem still not resolved but after asking several mechanics they seem of the opinion that its just the belt and that it needs to break in. Well, I will drive for 3000 kms and see if it goes away. Nothing else I can do now. Took it apart 4 and put it back together 4 times now. Its kind of going away. Mechanics might be right ... we'll see.
From your pic everything looks right. I'm at a loss as to what to say - if you think its the tensioner it would be nice to see that part, but that means taking the crank pulley off - eff that.
I think it might just be the belt getting broken in, but after about 3K miles I'd take the top cover off and see if there's any serious damage or major indications of rubbing on something. I think that'd be soon enough to prevent belt failure in case something became really messed up.
One other thought - it couldn't be the tensioner spring, right? I see the chafing on the outside, so its probably (actually definitely) not that.
I'm with the others and I'm thinking it is something hitting the covers, a busted piece of rubber or voodoo. I'm out of ideas other than calling joe pesci.
"If it's so essential, ask yourself why you've been able to live without it before now."
Try doing something nice for a total stranger, then look back at your car. Notice that the good feeling you get from helping lasts all day, but you constantly have to put stuff on your car to feel better.
2. Can I manually adjust the timing belt to be tighter or looser? Or does the auto tensioner do this automatically?
3. I'm starting to think that the auto tensioner (even though its new) might not be tensioning enough creating slack in the belt and making it whip around and hit the cover.
... we'll see. 
Re: Timing Belt DIY 2 
