Hello, I just bought a 2001 Prelude with 70,000 miles on it. I got a great deal for it, but I am afraid I have the problem with the auto tensioner. I bought the car fro my wife so I have not been driving it much. The other day I heard the famous growl sound coming from the engine compartment around 1200 rpm mostly when deaccelerating. I also notice it alot when I am driving slow through a gas station or a parking lot. It goes away at idle and mostly goes away above 2200 rpm. Now since I have a 2001 does this mean that in the 4 years of making this car Honda never put a good auto tensioner in the Preludes, but have good ones sitting in their parts bins? Also, I was wondering if anyone has heard of this causing the belt to break or slip off? I am getting married in 6 weeks and 500 - 700 to get this fixeed is alot right now. I have read all the posts on this forum reguarding this topic. I will also mention there is no TBS on the 2001 Prelude like there is on the 97 - 00. 01-010 JAN 01 Engine - Flapping Noise Between 1,800 & 2,600 RPM. Did I get an old messed up part in my lude? Any additional insight on this would be helpfull.

Thanks
Jamie

 

sounds like it COULD be the auto-tensioner
it is highly likely that the car just had the timing belt done (it HAD to have it done at 60k) or else you'd be very lucky to be driving right now and it would break in the next 5k

my sisters 3G timing belt broke at 75k and i mean broke, she pushed it to the limit. I doubt any honda would even make it to 75k

anyway chances are that whoever did the job (maybe even honda) did NOT change the auto-tensioner or RE-OIL it at least.
you are supposed to change it even if it is working fine when you do the belts, i rebuilt/re-oiled mine to save 70 bux since it was smooth and turned out to be low on oil

or the d00d who did the belt used like a vise to compress it (BAD IDEA) and now its ****ed up

~boomer

 

I found this video on another message board. This is a civic that has my exact problem. Same sound at the same RPM.

http://pages.sssnet.com/slater/temp/engine.wmv

 

My 2000 Autotensior problem sounded a little different. It had ticking sound with the grrrr ... Someone else had the same issue with that sound too ... check this one out:

https://www.honda-acura.net/forums/s...threadid=96751


Over time, it did get worse and worse ... until I thought the car was going to explode. Then I took it in ...

 

Honda says 105k for timing replacement on the 5th gen Preludes. I just had mine done at 80k.

 

I think there is some overreaction to this auto tensioner thing. I changed mine back in June at 85k with the grrrr at decel between 1000-1200 rpm. So, my uncle and I (he's been an ASE mechanic for 30 years so he knows cars like mice know cheese). After taking it appart, we inspected the entire tensioner assembly and found absolutely nothing wrong with it. Replaced the belts and pump, put it all back together, and guess what! No grrrr. Now, I don't know what happened, other than we replaced the belts. So, I think most of the complaints people have are just the belts themselves, and not the tensioner. My engine is in fact running like the day I bought it since we also replaced the pugs and adjusted the valves. I waited about a week to let the new belts get set, then I let her rip a few times in VTEC and not a problem.