[scottwithakay]

One day, I was driving down the road and my car started making a terrible noise.

It sounded something like a baseball card taped to your kid's bike and slapping against the spokes, only much worse. I wanted to shut her down and pull over right there, but couldn't until i got out of the bad curves. I found a driveway to pull into but had to use power to get it up the slope. It was running fine, only sounding like it was tearing itself apart. I had my wife start it up while I was listening for a location. It was so loud I couldn't even begin to tell where it was coming from.

I've been meaning to replace the valve seals because she was burning lots of oil. I know it is the valve seals because she was still getting 33-38 mph and had perfect results on both a direct compression check and a differential compression check.

So I started taking it apart and quickly found the problem.

As soon as i removed the timing belt cover, I discovered the timing belt was very loose. I then realized that the tensioning pulley had broken off of it's plate and was just sitting in there. The noise was a result of the slack side of the timing belt violently slapping against the cover. There was evidence of this on the cover itself.

I have since removed the cylinder head. One reason is because I wanted to do work to the valve seals. The other reason was because I wanted to check to make sure that the loose timing belt hadn't caused any contact between the valves and pistons. There is no such damage. I lucked out! Also at 130K, the cylinder walls are in excellent shape. I'll have her up and running in no time!

 

[RetsaM]

Very lucky!

What year is your accent?

Thanks for the pictures ... awesome.

 

[scottwithakay]

My Hyunday accent is a bear-bones, 2001 3 door. I had the choice between this and a 96' accord. The hatchback made it possible to fit an entire drum kit or a full guitar stack and several guitars. It also gets better mileage and I can zip it in and out of tight spaces. I have a tow kit on it and used to pull a Hobie 16 foot catamaran. The boat only weighed 450 lbs or so, but it acted like a parachute at highway speeds.

This car has been great! Versatile, economical to run, maintain, and easy to repair. I bought it with 8 miles, sold it with 110K or so, and bought it back with 120K or so. Yes, I bought the same car twice. I call her my little hellcruiser. I've been in accidents with her (major and minor with both looking minor) She ain't so pretty any more, but she'll be a great teacher for my kids.