I just developed a new noise at the front of the engine:

http://youtu.be/npXoK5FTMHU


It seems to be near the front of the cams or the timing belt gears on the cams which I have messed with twice since my timing belt jumped several degrees a couple of months ago.

Does the vast collective wisdom of this Forum include anyone who recognizes this noise?

Thanks in advance,
Wade

 

wow, thats really strange, last time i heard that was on the 03 matrix we had, by chance was your a/c on? last time we had an issue with our a/c unit and it made a very similiar sound! anyone else care to help our fellow CL brother out? could be wrong just wanted to help

 

Have you checked the crank pulley for separation assuming this is a 2J.

 

Thank you!
No, the A/C was off.
Any other suggestions?

 

It seems to be right at the top of the engine but I did check the crank pulley / harmonic balancer and it seems fine.

Thank you!

 

Could it possibly be a belt bearing?
This happened to my brothers 1999 Lexus gs300, though it did not sound that rough.

 

Check your distributors. Take the covers off and start it up to see if the noise is louder. .

 

Are you talking about a belt bearing along the serpentine belt's route or are you talking about a bearing associated with the timing belt? There are tensioners for both so, I suppose, either is possible but neither seems to me to be the source of the noise.

 

I have a spare distributor. While I am not anxious to do so, I will install it and see if it makes any difference. I am skeptical because the noise seems higher and not as far left as the distributor but I am really stumped.

Are you just talking about the decorative cover over and in front of the timing belt? That makes sense. I can just pull off the fan and fan clutch and remove the top cover around the oil fill and the upper portion of the front cover to see if it is louder.

Thanks,
Wade

 

The prize goes to "belt bearing".

Now, the idler pulley comes only as an assembly for $150+. However, our SC300's pulley is 95mm x 17mm x 30mm. The first # is diameter. The second # is the bolt size (don't be fooled, our pulley fits on a 17mm fixed axle on the assembly even though the bolt is smaller). The third # is the pulley's width.

I found a domestic application using a 90 x 17 x 30 for $24 @ O'Reilly's.