I drive an 03 ES 2.0L & I just changed my timing belt & water pump over the weekend and everything seemed to go well. After I finished, I started it up and it sounded fine. But once I started driving it the engine makes a kind of whining noise. It's definitely coming from the area of the engine where the timing belt is. The timing was dead on, the water pump was installed without a problem. Does anyone have an idea of what the whining could be? A friend who's a mechanic said it's probably that the timing belt tension is too high. If that is the case, is there a way to loosen the tension without taking off the covers & motor mount on the 03? Any thoughts?

 

The whine is definitely from the Timing belt being too tight! You will have to take the covers and mount back off. Whe nthe timing belt is too tight it will give off a sense of having a supercharger and get louder as the RPM's get higher.

 

Thanks for the input, dang I was hoping to avoid having to take all those parts off.

 

Do it right the first time and you don't have to do things over again. (Had to take a door panel off 3 times because something wasn't right )

 

Yea, your right about that man.

 

Just as an update to anyone reading, the whining was definitely because of an overtightened timing belt. Yesterday, I backed the pulley off just a touch (I slid the pulley in the opposite direction of the water pump about 3/8 of an inch) and reassembled everything. The noise was gone and actually the engine sounds better than before. Thankfully I didn't throw a bearing in the water pump or mess anything up.

 

Awesome, good news! Learn from our mistakes right?

 

Yep, and I won't have to change the belt or water pump for the next 60,000 miles. I'm glad that's over.