Timing belt oddity. WTF?

[HaveSomeJoe]

Well i painted my valve cover last night (which looks OKAY at best, you really can't be lazy when doing the prep work) i still like it a lot though. I also replaced the valve cover gasket. I'm sure those things have nothing to do with what happened last night though.

Anyway, i was tightening the VC bolts and one of my friends was lightly tapping my timing belt telling me about when his broke. I've been dying to replace mine because i just got the car and for all i know it could be on the original belt at 150 thousand miles. He tapped it maybe two times and i heard a weird click noise and the belt got TONS of slack in it. It looks like the click was the rear cam pulley jumping back on its own.

I took everything off and looked at the belt and it looks fine, no broken teeth. And the belt regains tension when you crank the pulley back, but then its VERY far out of timing.

I'm going to replace all the belts now because of that, but how lucky am I that it happened when the car wasnt running!

 

[teamo2t]

May be it was the auto tensinor (how ever it is spelled, )... If it is the original with 150K it is time for a new one!

 

[Splitpi]

My first thought is the auto tensioner aswell.

 

[19Eclipse90]

Auto Tensioner x3

 

[HaveSomeJoe]

thanks everyone, ill be replacing all the belts next week permitting they get delivered on time. anyone know any good places to get all the belts and tensioners? I know slowboy sells a kit so ill probably get it from there.

 

[Splitpi]

Replace:

- Water Pump
- Timing Belt
- Timing Belt Tensioner Pulley
- Timing Belt Tensioner (hydrolic tensioner)
- Timing Belt Idler Pulley
- Balance Shaft Belt (Silent Shaft Belt)
- Balance Shaft Tensioner Pulley
- Accessory Belts

I just bought from www.partsdinosaur.com I bought on on a Tuesday night and received the parts Saturday Afternoon of the same week. They are not mitsu name brand, but reviews of partsdinosaur are very promsing and I gave them a shot. Save me ~$100 from when I bought from mitsu. 3K miles so far and no complaints. Also when I last bought my water pump from Mitsu, I got an AISIN brand.. and not even a mitsu brand... so the price gained me nothing and I had to redo my timing belt after 20k miles because the AISIN water pump bearing started to allow wobble. So go figure. Anyways, its an option on where to buy and quick customer service.

You'r probably going Waterpump? WTF! Well simple answer is that its 15 more minutes of work to change the water pump once you already have the Timing Belt off rather than to completely redo the timing belt to change the water pump. Besides, its listed by mitsu as part of the 60K maintance, for that very same reason.

 

[19Eclipse90]

I would also recommend doing camshaft gaskets and even the front main seal/crankshaft gasket. Each of them takes a whopping 5 minutes and are pretty darn cheap + *yet once again* saves you the headache of having to remove the timing belt a second time to change.

 

[HaveSomeJoe]

Grade A responses, thanks everyone

 

[HaveSomeJoe]

Wow partsdinosaur seems pretty nice, so in order for me to buy all the replacement parts, I have to buy the

1. Timing belts & Bearings kit
2. Timing belt tensioner adjuster
3. Water Pump 89-94
4. Accessory Belts package.

and that should cover EVERYTHING you listed correct? 4 total things in my cart?

 

[Defiant]

He tapped it maybe two times and i heard a weird click noise and the belt got TONS of slack in it. It looks like the click was the rear cam pulley jumping back on its own.

It was.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18362

 

[HaveSomeJoe]

hey thanks defiant, that actually sounds exactly like what could have happened, because the motor was sitting for 5 or 6 hours. The only thing is is that because we were trying to take off all the stuff you need to remove in order to remove the timing belt, we had to turn the crankshaft here and there to get to certain tensioner bolts and all that slack made the exhaust cam gear go way out of timing.

Im still going to replace the belts anyway, since I already ordered them, but thats interesting to know.