Timing Belt Tension

Hey guys,

I noticed when I had the car running today with the top T-belt cover off that I am getting vibrations in my timing belt between the cam gears at certain engine speeds. Im wondering if the tension is not correct on the belt or my tensioner is worn out, please have a look at the video below and let me know if it looks loose.

I had the belt off last month to change cams, I adjusted the tension by setting the tensioner pulley so that the grenade pin would move freely in and out of the hydraulic tensioner after rotating the engine over 5 times and letting it sit for 15 minutes.

If it is too loose I assume I would have to replace the hydraulic tensioner, this unit has about 60,000km on it.

Youtube Video

From the first few seconds of your video, I can tell that either the tension has been set incorrectly or the tensioner is dead.

Thanks Reza, that's what I figured.

I'll take the tensioner off and check it in a vice, if it seems good I'll try to reset the tension, otherwise I'll get a new one.

Well, I got the tensioner out tonight and discovered that it isn't OEM so I'm going to replace it anyway although it does appear to still be fine (it's very difficult to compress).

I'm going to order the tensioner pulley tool so that I can do the tensioner procedure by the book, hopefully that combined with the new tensioner will solve my issues.

The new OEM tensioner set using the grenade pin method cleared up this problem, the belt now runs flats between the cams without any visible vibration at all engine speeds.