jamesliz

At about 40,000 miles I noticed a noise coming from the plastic timing belt cover on my 2000 ES300. Not real noisy or metallic sounding just a low howl. Competent Toyota dealer replaced upper idler pulley on cam belt along with new cam belt and noise stopped for about 7,000 miles. Noise returned and dealer replace pulley again under warranty for first job. Said he couldn't believe first part was defective. Never had seen that before. Both times water pump was diagnosed as fine. 8,000 miles later and noise is back. Definitely in the cover.
Are these pulleys just noisy. I found several treads with people with noisy pulleys on SC's, but maybe they're just noisy. The engine is so quiet probably wouldn't hear it in other cars. Should I worry?? or just live with it. 60,000 on car now. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks

vstolyarov

first of all sc have a different engine, and its rwd.

noise could be caused by bad belt, too tight or loose, maybe need to adjust tension?

92ES5sp

The t-belt tensioner is hydraulic and is non adjustable.