Another Noise Problem

[92NTlarry]

I got a noise under my hood. Driver-side.
The sound is like grinding sound.

Similar to the sound you get when a rusty pulley sounds like when not having grease.

How it get started

My alternator went out 500 miles ago. I changed that myself. It ran fine without that noise for weeks.

Last week I took the car to a car-wash. Washed the engine. Now I got that sound.

You can say engine wash causes it. But, it could be coincidence that something else went bad (due to old age).

Increasing RPM will increase that noise. It seems to correlate with each turn of belts/pulleys. Car's driveability is not affected at all. Just bothering.

My car

1992, 1.8L NT, Manual, 190K. I still have a lot of things in stock.

What I have done

Sprayed belt-dressing on belts. Also WD-40 around the pulley bearings. I sprayed every single pulley/bearing that I can see outside of timing-belt-cover. Belts are also tight to specs.

The noise is not the belt noise. 100% sure. It sounds like pulley noise. Also sounds like coming from inside the timing-belt-cover. Als sounds like timing-belt hitting the cover.

It is not high-pitch noise. It is also not very loud.

Whatever I have done didn't help. Next step is to open up timing-belt-cover. Really hate to do that.

A little history

Timing belt was changed 10K miles ago. All belts + water pump + spark plugs are replaced. All the pulleys inside are deemed ok by mechanics.

Appreciate any suggestions.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Take off the timing belt cover and see if the sound goes away! I wouldn't recommend driving it without a TB cover (due to rocks maybe getting stuck in the timing belt - that would #### up your day ) but revving in your driveway is fine. Good luck!

 

[92NTlarry]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak03
Take off the timing belt cover and see if the sound goes away!

SpeedFreak,

Nope.
I took the top timing belt cover off.
The sound is still there.

Next thing is bottom timing belt cover. But, that would be just like changing timing belt. I will need to take everything off. Hmm.

I think I will just go to a shop and let the mechanic deal with it.

Thanks .

 

[92NTlarry]

Thank God. I went to my mechanic.

He said it was the water pump that was installed 6 months /8000 miles ago. The bearing on it is making noise.

So, he put a new one in. All free of charge.

It's great! They are great. All this without telling them I mess with my car a lot.

So, they could have told me something else failed and have me pay them.

I guess, their (a little)-higher-than-average rates are now justified.

He said it probably might have been caused by over-tightened belt.

Oh - I forgot to tell him I changed the alternator 4 weeks ago and tightened it too much for a week until I went back and loosened up a bit.

Now my car is whisper quiet (like a Lexus or Mercedes ) at 191K miles.

Who said aren't reliable?