Resolved hydro tensioner goes down over night after installation

[Evgeny]

Hello, I'm changing now timing belt on 2004 eclipse, and got a weird behaviour of new (aftermarket) hydro timing tensioner. I installed everything, adjusted tension, rotated crankshaft as necessary, and everything was good (I made a photo 1 in that moment and 2 after rotation).

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The day after I came to continue and checked tension of belt, something changed. I examined everything again and saw the next picture:

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I decided to rotate crankshaft again, just to see how things will go.

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I'm able to insert the stopper. All marks aligned, but on my opinion, it should not be this way, The tensioner should not go down after a while as on photo 3.

Can someone confirm or deny? Should I return this tensioner?
Thanks.

 

[chrysler kid]

Im not familiar with the 3rd gen, however You should return that tensioner, it appears to have problems maintaining pressure. In my opinion the car would jump timing eventually whenever you were to try to start it. You should also verify that the tensioner pulley bolt is tight

 

[Evgeny]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter 2/3g, idea of this tensioner the same on both. You just confirmed my inner thoughts it should maintain pressure at certain level. It can play a little, but if it will go down over night, next morning, when I will run engine belt just can jump. Just to be completely sure I will check it tomorrow (but probably return it anyway). Regarding tensioner pulley - I tightened it according to manual specs, but in case if it loosened it should be opposite, tensioner will go up, not down right?
Thanks for quick answer.

 

[chrysler kid]

I Remember my old oem belt having slack in it after sitting a while after the engine cooled. My gates racing belt hasn't had that slack in it yet however I adjusted the tensioner pulley with the pin in the tensioner and the arm long bolt tool holding everything in place. I then rated the crank 6 times, and waited 15 minutes 2-3 times (with the grenade pin and tensioner arm tool removed of course)


A little better info regarding belt slack

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/ti...-loose-cam-sag-sagging-sprockets-gears.18362/

It seems to be normal on a dual overhead cam.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1g-timing-belt-tensioner-gap.485390/

 

[Evgeny]

I did all stages in manual (and checked on stage 15), everything was good. I was able to freely remove pin. But I can confirm also, that when I rotated crankshaft today, the tensioner went up and belt's tension became the same as yesterday. I rotated crankshaft clockwise until all marks became aligned and inserted stopper pin again freely. Interesting link you posted. Looks like it can be normal behaviour. For now I can first check with old tensioner (it wasn't bad, i'm just replacing everything in one time) and than with new one from some other manufacturer. If both will do the same - let it be.

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[chrysler kid]

Yeah I just went out to my car to verify I still do have belt slack same as with my oem belt.

My hypothesis after reviewing those threads and having read vfaq a million times, is that you measure the tensioned belt and tensioner gap to be in that specific depth range so that the belt does not have excessive slack whenever the tensioner goes into the resting position. If the tensioner did not depress it would probably keep excessive stress on the belt, more specifically the resting teeth on the belt providing tension.

So as long as your measured gap after rotating the crank 6 times and waiting 15 minutes is in spec your tensioner is functioNing correctly

This board can be a bit tricky, most topics end with a wise man stepping in and saying it is good, it is bad, but no real explanation

Cheers

 

[Evgeny]

Thanks, anyway I'll recheck everything in the nearest days.

 

[chrysler kid]

For the record since all I found was hysterically way too much slack in belts when searching belt slack, here is what proper belt slack looks like in case the topic comes up again.

Slack should be minimal, slightly loose with no obvious bends or curves in the belt. I know it's not applicable in your case but it may help if the topic comes up again.

My oem mitsubishi belt with 80k on it had the same resting slack as this new belt with all new oem tensioner and pulleys

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[GST Jeremy]

i'd replace it personally. wont be too hard to do put a binch of zip ties on the cam gears and some vice grips to hold it in time the pull

 

[Evgeny]

So, it was faulty out-of-the-box tensioner. Look at the photos, I installed a new from another manufacturer. No major difference on the next day.

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