hey guys, i have a problem here. have an 01 lude, recently started hearing a rubbing noise coming from the cam gear side of the engine. my buddy helped me take da cam gear cover off and we noticed the timing belt was going over da edge of the edge of the cam gear and rubbing the plastic cover. after taking the timing belt off, my friend told me to replace the idler pulley on the tesioner cuz it was worn, also replaced the auto tensioner. was good for about a week after, now that it started doin the same thing....what else could it be? everything else is good and tight, and belts are properly adjusted. any suggestions what else too check?

 

Well that sounds like a sucky problem. What all did you replace exactly? Did you follow the recommended way of inserting a bolt, locking the balancer shaft in place? What was the physical shape of everything in there?

 

Also did you make sure you left slack only on the one side? I know you're only supposed to leave slack on the water pump side I think, if not it will be pulling the belt funny.

 

i always mark a tooth on the belt to each cam sprocket and also on the crank sprocket so there is no room for error when reinstalling the timing belt. however, if your belt is coming off the cam sprocket, next time you put the belt on, run the engine with the timing covers off so you can inspect all the pullys and sprockets for warpage or mis alignment. when you run it without the pullys you need to put crankshaft pully back on so cranckshaft sprocket does not walk off.

 

I had a similar problem, what had happened to me was the idler pulley bolt had gotten loose, since i didnt mess with that, I hadnt checked to see if it was tight. When this happened to me , it would actually do it if I turned it by hand, so luckily I didnt waste another belt.