I did my 60k service today and after installilng a new OEM belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley and all other parts besides the water pump. After install I notice the timing belt rubs on the crank sensor blade. Not by much but enough to cause fear that the sharp edge of the crank sensor blade is going to wipe out my timing belt. I can also see signs that the old timing belt was hitting the blade. Tiny tiny notches on along the inside edge of the belt.

Crank pulley nut is tight.. put on with a 400 ft lb impact, Car runs fine but I'm scared to drive it.

Is the TB supposed to be this freakin close to the blade?

 

Thats not right.

Can you observe the area with the engine running and the front wheel off? The sensing blade should be a stamped part. It should have a lip (with the two teeth) that sits lower than the mounting surface and this should be the side closer to the engine (towards your balance shaft belt.) The sprocket goes on next (and the manual says to degrease all faces to reduce the chance of creating friction)
The bolt then goes on and the large washer with the big chamfer facing the bolt head.

If all this is in order...you need to find out if your alignment of the pulleys is off. Something has to be causing it to migrate in. Be sure about this though. If it was really bad, the sensor blade would bend, your crank angle sensor will break and the belt will take some damage. This is why I dont think its rubbing where you think. And if it is...the belt really cant physically hit the teeth. They sit on a different plane than the belts edge. You may just be seeing normal wear.

Without looking myself...this is just an educated guess. Hope it helps. Or if I am wrong...someone else chime in.

 

how can u see the timing belt hitting the sensor wheel? can you hear it or anything?

 

I don't know what is up.. I had myself and 3 DSM guru's over and no one can seem to find the source of the problem. Only thing we can tell is something is sucking the belt towards the block. All of the shafts coming out of the engine are tight, none of the pulleys are loose or show any defects. I've posted some pics of just how close the belt is to the crank trigger.

Outter edge of old belt

Inner edge of old belt


Showing how far in the belt gets pulled over on it's own after running for 30 seconds

 

The cam gear looks normal. Mine sits about the same spot. You can see in your last pic that the actual tooth is recessed on the sensing blade and it should rotate on a different plane than the belt. I see the rub marks on it though. If that was bent you would be destroying you crank angle sensor.

Worn crankshaft sprocket. The belt could have been too tight on the tensioner from the factory and caused abnormal wear. It has to be somehting along those lines. You said you replaced the tensioner and tensioner pulley. How did you measure the torque on the belt tensioner pulley (the one with the eccentric bolt?) To be done properly, I think it was like 30 in/lbs and you need a special mitsu tool that fits in the two little holes.

But definately start looking for worn parts. Could even be the cam gears themselves.

No problems with the crank angle sensor either right?

Just trying to do a little process of elimination and some out-of-the-box thinking. Can you get me a pic of the left side of that crank sprocket? I know its a hard area to see.

 

I made a little tool just like the mitsu tool with the pins to rotate the TB tensioner pulley. For adjustment I left the pin in the tensioner, turned the pulley until I could feel the plunger put slight pressure on the pin and tightened the pulley. Rotated the TB assembly 3 turns and rechecked to see if the pin would go back into the holes on the plunger. Waited 15 min and checked it again.

I will get a pic of the crankshaft pulley tonight after work. Do you want it on or off the engine? Yes the crank sensor is fine.. car runs perfect. I think I'm going to get some prices on a new crank trigger, and pulley.

 

sounds like you did everything right. I suspect worn or damaged pulleys/sprockets.

 

Well I tried to swap in a known good crank pulley and oil pump pulley, and crank trigger plate. No change at all. One thing I did notice that I would like to question is, when I tighten down the 12mm bolt that mounts the tensioner arm to the block, should there be a slight in and out movement.. maybe a 1/16". Not up and down or side to side, just in and out. Arm visually looks fine, coated bushings are even and show no signs of abnormal wear. The only thing I have not swapped out YET is the idler pulley and the cam gears. I'm in the works of talking a friend into letting me swap cam gears just to see if this fixes my problem.

Could this be a symptom of crank walk?

 

This is a known and somewhat common problem on the IX. Other posts here from owners complaining of clicking sounds at idle are probably having the same problem.

Cars have been returned to the dealer and fixed. I don't know what they do.

 

Update.. After trying EVERY single belt and pully besides the cam gears, I borrowed a set of stock cam gears off a 1g DSM. (had to make my own timing marks on them), but the car runs fine and low and behold the belt is no longer rubbing on the crank trigger plate! I'm going to order all new gears and a set of timing gears for the EVO.

 

I would also look at the crankshaft thrust bearings. You didn't mention crankwalk, so I am going to assume you don't have it. Measure the distance between the crank sensor and the plate. If it is not within specs, then you may want to look further. Just food for thought to rule out all possibilities before you spend money on something that may not solve the problem

 

I think the question was asked earlier though

 

right on. I hope this is the final fix. I have run into pulleys and sprockets being worn causing exactly this kind of problem. The looks of the trigger disc and the balance shaft gear (on the crank) have flanges that seem to suggest the belt migrates in to a degree. That must be why the factory maint. manual says to degrease the surface of the trigger disc where contact is made to ensure a lower-friction surface.

Good luck.

 

Ok. It could be that the thrust washers are sized a bit different, causing the crank to sit more to the passenger side. With the crank sprocket on and fully flush, and then putting the belt on, it would appear the belt is being "pulled" towards the crank sensor plate assembly, causing the rubbing. It may have been assembled from the factory incorrectly like this. Wouldn't be the first time. It's worth taking a look. Just my two cents.