Timing belt noise when starting car
 

A mechanic replaced my timing belt, water & oil pump along with the other things you are supposed to chance when changing the timing belt...so he says. I have a 92' Honda accord, 4 door EX and sometimes when I start the car, it makes a squealing sound. The kind of sound that tells you that something is wrong with your timing belt. I have taken the car back several times to the mechanic and he says nothing is wrong with the belt. He says that will go away in a while...but is been 4 months now. What is the problem then? Why is it making this sound?:mad: Also when you are driving the car, you can hear a high frequency noise from the belt I believe. At this point I am about to tell him to either replace everything he put in the car with new parts or refund my money back for all the parts he put into the car so I have someone else fix the car properly.

A new timing belt can make a light whining sound, especially if it's tensioned a bit too tight. I wouldn't call that "squealing" and it's not just a brief sound at startup.

Squealing makes me think of the external drive belts (alternator, P/S). Not the toothed timing belt.

Are the external drive belts new also? Maybe too loose?

Screeching at start up sounds more like accessory belt.not the t-belt. Check tention on the accessory belts.

The alternator and A/C belts were changed after the squealing issue, so no issue there.

Tensioner pulley? There's one each on the camshaft-timing-belt & the balance-shaft-timing-belt. Are those tensioner's new?

Check to see if all the accesory pullys spin freely if one is abnormaly hard to spin it could cause a screach when you start the car then once the belt gets hot enough from the slipage it will grab the pully and force it to rotate.

Some one else who heard the noise said they thought it was the pulley as well, but the mechanic said he replaced them.

You can remove both external drive belts & start the engine. Your waterpump is driven by the timing belt so it's safe to remove the external belts. Then you'll know, if it continues to make the sound.

An easier way would be spray some water (windex bottle) on the external belts. You'll hear if that changes the sound. But removing the belts is absolute & certain.

Thanks...you are a great help

if not the outer belts out of adjustment , could be that the t-belt might be too tight ..

My 1995 Accord squeals at startup and it is the AC compressor. Even with the compressor (the clutch engages on startup on mine for few seconds) off it does that. I have tightened the new belt a little beyond specs and it barely does it at times. You may have the same problem. A timing belt will give you a noise all the time if it is too tight and too loose will probably fail in some manner. Does running the AC give you the noise?

That's what i was trying to describe in post #6. Kris is you ac compressor engaged all the time? Does the clutch ever disengage or does it only make the squeal after you shut the car of and then restart it with the A/C/compressor on?

I seldom use the AC in my car and have not used at all this season so far

1998accordlx:

The AC works correctly other than clutch is engaged at start up for few seconds if the AC is on or off. I have never tried unplugging the connecter for the clutch.

The mechanic discovered the re manufactured water pump was defective. That was causing the noise.

I have a screeching sound in my 94EX that I have traced to the starter. It doesn't make the sound every start, perhaps 1/5 starts. I removed the starter and examined the rotor and bearings closely w/o finding any faults there. The starter has a gear drive and bendix that may be causing this noise, but I could not see any faults(plenty of grease and smooth rotation) to suggest a reason for the noise.

The source of this noise was very difficult to trace and I spent some time chasing the accessory belts, and eventually removed the belts to confirm the noise occurred w/o the belts.

The timing belt should not make a screeching noise unless one of the tensioner idler bearings is in really bad shape. Were they replaced when timing belts were replaced? It's also pretty difficult to overtighten the timing belt. Not impossible but difficult to do accidentally.

good luck