timingprob

So I've owned my 2003 ES300 for about a year or so now, and I recently took it into my mechanic for it's 90k timing belt replacement. I had him do the entire kit with water pump, pulleys, seals, etc Continental Brand as well as all the fluids. After picking it up in the next couple days I noticed a decently loud whirring noise coming from near the serpentine/timing belt area. Took it back, first he thought it was the cover on the timing belt being misaligned. That did not fix it. Second time he replaced the hydraulic tensioner, called me and said everything was good, and then maybe 30 minutes called again and said unfortunately that didn't work he was going to replace the entire kit. Now we've replaced the entire kit and the noise is still there. I haven't taken it back for him to look at it yet, but while we were discussing he threw out the possibility that it was the main bearings.

Since there was absolutely no noise before the belt was replaced, I would think it is highly unlikely that it is the main bearings. My thought is either that this contintenal kit was manufactured incorrectly for this particular vehicle, or else his employee that put the components on doesn't know what he's doing. I do trust this mechanic, my familys done business with him for 20 years and he's done free stuff for us quite frequently but I dunno if I trust his particular technician, and I'm getting frustrated.

Anyone have any knowledge or tips about timing belts on these particular engines? If I push the timing belt cover inwards towards the engine one of the noises grows quiet/goes away completely possibly. But there's another whirring noise that I'm hearing further down near the bottom of the serpentine/timing belt area. As I said earlier, before the car was in for this service, the engine was ABSOLUTE whisper quiet, to the point I would occasionally do double takes because I couldn't tell whether it was running or not.

thanks guys

P.S. ~ the noise is non existent or extremely slight in the morning when the engine is cold, as it warms up it gets louder and then stays consistent until it cools down again

wise2k

I would like to know the cause too, because my 03 ES300 also just started that kind of whining/whirring noise in the same area as you mentioned, about 2k miles ago. I've had it since 182k miles and now I'm at 194k and it was whisper quiet with a little 'purr' to it. Noise isn't too bad, and a mechanic I took it to said he couldn't hear anything abnormal, but again, you have to have owned/experienced the whisper quietness of the ES to notice the difference. It's almost similar to the sound you hear with low PS fluid, but there's plenty fluid. My PS and alternator belts look fairly new, so I've been thinking along the lines of tensioner, pulley, etc.

speedkar9

Does the whirring noise have a metal clang to it? My feeling is it could be a bad bearing in the alternator, A/C or power steering pump, possibly provoked from having the belt reinstalled too tight. Remove the serpentine belts and run the engine to see if the noise disappears.

I'm hearing a whirring/clanging kind of noise in my dad's Sienna (with the 3.3L 3MZ-FE), and have also started hearing it recently on my ES (also the 3.3L), but have yet to investigate.

timingprob

no doesn't really have a metal clang at all, just whirring like a belt rubbing or a bearing in a pulley thats to tight or worn out. I talked to a guy who works at Toyota, and during the discussion he said they NEVER replace anything other than the belts and water pump, the tensioner doesn't get replaced, seals, pulleys, nothing, unless it's bad, which he said is extremely rare. So my new personal thought is that all the extra stuff in the "kit" besides the pump and belts probably isn't nearly as good a quality as OEM, and possibly even the tensioner or something is already bad. I dunno

LeX2K

It could be the belt itself, try a Gates or OEM.

PuReChaos

Really? The one I work at we replace EVERYTHING which is why it costs more than independent shops. Honestly, not quite sure what it could be, I was originally thinking along the lines of what speedkar said, however, if theres no clang then its more than likely something else. The belt is a good place to start. Just curious, is the mechanic taking care of the problem on his dime or do you have to pay the labor costs?

timingprob

he's taking care of it on his own dime, only thing he would make me pay for is if it was something not originally replaced or touched, but as long as it would be covered under timing belt labor I wouldn't have to pay for labor just a new part.

wise2k

On mine, like I had said earlier, the sound/noise is almost reminiscent of the one you hear with low power steering fluid; but, it's down there in the belt area not the power steering pump area.

speedkar9

Well start with the easiest things - take the belts off and see if the noise disappears. If not, take the timing covers off and go around with a stethoscope to isolate which bearing is making the noise. Does the pitch change with
RPM? If not, its probably not something that rotates with the engine (such as a cam, crank, or timing belt or accessory pulley).

Chuckinnj

^^^^^^^^^^^. This is the ONLY way to troubleshoot this noise...... Process of elimination. This should take less than two hours to do.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

I second that opinion

timingprob

I haven't checked much into it myself yet, I've been way to busy, and I'm going to let my mechanic have a go at it himself until he tells me something I don't like. But yeah, I'm just gathering info at the moment and seeing if there was anything common that happened on these engines with this. If it comes to it yeah I'll pull the cover and the belt and I got my steth buried in my toolbox somewhere.

come to think of it I did have my buddy rev it just once to see whether the noise got any louder, which it did not, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to hear if it changed pitch or not. We shall see, thanks for all the thoughts guys

Oro

Several Ideas:

1) If you over-torque the PS pump pinch bolt, the pump will make a whirring noise when re-assembled. I had this happen last week on a T-belt. I had loosened it fully and pushed the ps/vane pump aside to get clearance to get at the tensioner bolts. I over-torqued the pinch bolt when re-installing. (Pinch bolt is the blind one over the pump, not the two visible ones on the adjuster bracket). When I heard the noise, I realized what I had done wrong and I went back down, loosened it all up and re-torqued it in sequence to correct values and the noise immediately went away. I have a strong suspicion this is your problem based on your good description.

2nd option (as mentioned) is that if you have a weak bearing, it will get worse with a new t-belt and ac/alt belt. Mine did that too, and I had to go back and pull the alt. and re-build it (only $30 w/parts from a local auto electric specialty shop - I was totally unable to find a rebuild kit or bearings from any other source).

3rd thing is, if the thing is if a tooth off, it will screw with the ECU/ECM/PCM (whad eva ya' wanna call it) signals to the VVT-I gear and the OCV will be out of synch. This will make an unholy racket asap, however this would clearly be noise coming from the valve gear and not down low.

4th, if Someone who does not know this engine did it, and they pulled the rear cam pulley off, two things could have gone wrong:

PS, unless you are a licensed cardiologist AND ASME card-carrier, don't trust what you think you hear through your steth. I have a decent stethoscope for engine/mechanical use. My dad has two, and is a former professional motorcycle mechanic and racer, and diesel mechanic and machinist. I went to med school and got trained by top cardiologists at UW with my fancy "Littman Cardiology III" stethoscope to find the slightest murmurs. I was good; not tops in my class. But still, unless you get the cheap(er) mechanics steth on the exact right part, you will hear transmitted noise and easily misdiagnose it. He and I make mistakes with the stethoscopes often and between us, we should be as good as the very best professional mechanic.

The issue is we aren't bad, the thing is the resonance of steel all firmly bolted together means the sound travels so much and so efficiently that you can easily be fooled.

a) it is not installed the same as the front bank pulley, the belt lip is reversed vs. the front pulley (same part, just installed backwards - kinda counter-intuitive). Lip could be grinding on back shield or front cover. I do not consider this likely as it would be self-resolving pretty quickly.
b) did not tension rear cam pulley bolt correctly and pulley loose. Again, not the most likely as it would lead to other problems first.

Hope this helps.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I know this a hell of a bump, but I had a similiar situation l. Just had the TB/WP replaced along with everything else and got a whistling noise a little bit after that. I could have sworn it was a belt or tensioner, but it ended up being the vacuum hose thT goes from the PCV to the intake that was causing my whistling noise. The noise was coming from that area, so I just assumed it was a belt. It must have been a minor leak since there was no CEL, but enough to cause the whistling noise. Hope it helps someone out in the future

NOVARX300

I use a quality shop - not a dealership for my low mileage (98k) 2003 RX300. In July 2015, at 91k miles, I had the shop replace the Timing Belt and Water Pump along with the rest of the 90k service. Earlier this year I began hearing this noise. Took it back to the shop. They told me the noise was coming from a faulty TB idler bearing. Replaced at no charge - under warranty. About a month ago, noise occurred again, dropped by the shop and mechanic took out a stethoscope and said noise was certainly occurring again and asked me to drop it off again. Dropped car off about 10 days ago and shop replaced TB idler bearing again. Shop manager told me mechanic is solid and only thing they have to go on is the rare possibility that the idler bearings failed a 2nd time. "Bring back if you hear noise again." Well noise reappeared. Doesn't get loud until engine has warmed up. Couldn't hear it at all when starting the car today but after 20 minutes the noise was certainly back. Car is going back in tomorrow morning. Shop manager has asked me to be prepared to leave it for a couple days because he wants the mechanic to take his time and pull everything apart. Any thoughts???