So two days ago I had a full belt job professionally done on my 2004 gsr. I ended up going with gates "blue" belts. Ever since I had gotten it back it has made a pretty loud "supercharger" type whine.

I know these belts are much stiffer/stronger than stock so some noise is to be expected. I can deal with some noise. Above anything I just want to make sure that the engine isn't going to be harmed in any way. The noise is pretty damn loud and makes my car sound like a complete hoopty, not something you want after dropping that much dough on maintenance. I am afraid that the belt is tensioned too tight and that unnecessary stress is being put on all of the gears and pulleys it is attached to.

I am going to go back to the shop and ask them at the end of the week what they think. I figured I would dip into the wealth of owners, on evo m, that may have been through this before. I have done a bunch of searching on this subject but have failed to come up with concrete answer. I just want to know if this is going to hurt my engine. I have attached a couple vids to show the noise and belt.

Directly after cold start in 35-40 degree weather:

Pulling into my driveway after a 15-20 minute drive:

A look at the timing belt(not sure if this helps but i figured it couldn't hurt):
Sorry for my car being so salty(you try keeping a car clean during winter in NJ!) haha and pay no mind to the high reading on the temp gauge, the gauge is malfunctioning. Working on that too -___-

Thanks for taking a look guys and lmk what you think, Brian

 

It looks to be over tensioned. It should not make any abnormal noise. I have used them for years and never have had a issue.

 

Alright man good to know. Hopefully when I go in later this week then can re-tension it and get rid of this noise. Soooo annoying

 

let me know how it goes. i too am running this belt. had my service done back in the summer/fall, but am just now getting a noise like this since the temps have dropped. mine however goes away completely when the car is at operating temps.

 

Yeah man I am thinking maybe mine just needs to be broken in. I've prob only put less than 50 miles on this one. The cold prob has a lot to do with it because the cold start sounds a lot nastier than the operating temp clip. Like I said I just want to make sure my engine is going to be good, also I'll def keep you posted on what the shop says hopefully later this week.

 

How much deflection do you have with the timing marks lined up?

 

It sounds like it was put on too tight/too much tension. It looks like you couldn't move the belt much. I did this on my DSM and made the same noise, on Toyota's as well if the Tbelt is too tight it will whine like that. Loosen her up a tad and it should be good. I don't think that belt will stretch much after driving it more being it is made with kevlar...good luck.

 

Not 100% sure what you mean by this :/ i didn't perform the belt job. I am pretty new to all of this stuff haha.

 

yeahhhh that is definitely what i am thinking. Going to take her back to the shop friday and let them re-tension it. Hopefully they don't say "ohh thats normal" because there is no way it is. Who would have thought making sure maintenance was done on time would cause problems hahaha

 

Simply, deflection is a set limit the belt can bend when a approx 100N of downwards pressure is applied to the belt. If i remember correctly the limit is between 5-7mm, if the belt exceeds or doesn't meet that limit tension is wrong.

 

So i put about 150 miles on the belt this week and just took it to the shop. At the shop they re tensioned everything and looked everything over. Immediately when I started it up I noticed it was better than before. The entire ride home I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I even got out when I got home and popped the hood to check it out. It runs much quieter. It is not 100% dead quite now but I just sounds like normal "belt noise". Although I didn't notice any of this noise from my previous belt, I wasn't exactly looking for it either. The shop I went to was very professional and if they looked at it twice and said everything was ok then I feel comfortable driving it. I am sure that as time goes on and everything gets seated and breaks in that it will be just a quite as it was before. Hopefully this thread helps others that have this problem. Thanks for reading, Brian

 

Quick quetion... I thought our cars have an automatic tensioner. Can you adjust manually?