Sorry to impose on you guys again but I really need help.

Most of you may have already read my earlier post of being charged so much for the cam gear install. At the end of that thread I wrote about how they screwed it up because I could hear a grinding/rubbing sound. I was pissed that such a simple job was not done right but figured it wasn't too serious, just an annoying rubbing on the plastic cam gear cover. Wrong!

Well, I took the upper cam gear cover off today and started up the car and could still hear the grinding (but even louder with the cover off.) What scares the hell out of me is that the grinding sounds like metal on metal. It just BARELY grinds, sometimes quite a bit, sometimes not at all. But it is loud: easily heard by anyone within 20 feet of the car. The grinding sound first began after driving 25 miles from the shop: I figured it was time to rev it hard to see if I could notice any positive changes. I immediately heard the grinding after these high (6500 to 6800) rpm runs.

What could be wrong? Is there some other area that the installer needed to grind down? I thought only the inside of the upper plastic gear cover needed to be smoothed down. Could this be a serious problem?

I'm taking it back to the shop tomorrow morning and I need to be able to speak to him with more knowledge about the issue.

Thanks......

 

1st off I am going to grill you a little. After we said he was ****ing you on the price you did it anyway, then after you left and it started making the noise why did you not take it back right then? You sound like someone who worries a lot just like me so take the time to find someone who has a clue and don't be in such a rush to get a half *** job and get ****ed on the price, now they ****ed up your car as well. Best case is something like the gears are lose or something, worse case = $3,000 or a gear flys off and trashes the head. This is NOTHING to **** around with, you can do a 1/2 assed job on a turbo back, intake, BOV. But cams, and gears you DON'T **** AROUND WITH! Now find someone that has a clue, **** man you are in CAL, how can you not find someone?

 

I would have turned right around but it was after eight pm last night before it acted up. VERY busy today at work but called and made appoint for first thing tomorrow morning.

This shop actually has a good reputation, specializing in aftermarket turboed cars and many DSMs in lot. They talked about the 4g63 when I dropped it off sounding very knowledgeable. There were other Mitsus/DSMs in their shop. So I fully believed that I had entrusted my car to professionals. That was the only reason I agreed to take it in the A$$ on price.

 

I do not like the sound of this. Is the belt tight? Are the nuts tight? Wiggle the gears. Next put the car in first and jack up the passengers side till the wheel is off the ground. Now turn the wheel forward (it will be hard and the other wheel wont spin cause of the FDiff) line up the notches on the gears to the notches on the valve cover. Now turn the rim and see if you can detect or hear any metal on metal. I hope they didnt trash your timing

 

The company that did the work was Triple E Automotive in Riverside, CA

 

hm is the cover still off? check with a flashlight and see if theres any metal shavings inside there.( camgears)

lemme think some more
tom

 

Had it off earlier with a flashlight. No metal shavings. Cover is now on, but it comes on and off in minutes: Just four 10mm bolts. I'm wondering if they may have over torqued the center bolt(s)....

 

Thats not it smog unless the stripped them BTW factory overtorqued them by some 40+ FT/Lbs

 

Smog!!

 

My guess is they over tightened the timing belts. I did this once on a civic and it made some strange noises. Stupid, cheap torque wrench. Luckily, I turned it off immediately and fixed it.

 

I read this but wasn't sure what if would prove one way or the other. It grinds and I'm not EXACTLY sure where. I'm not sure what notches on the valve cover you are talking about. Are you saying I can tell that my gears are misalligned if the the 0 (middle) marker on my cam gears are alligned with a visible mark nearby? If so shouldn't they line up at -5? the stock cam gear setting?

Going into garage now. Time to whip out wireless laptop!

 

I wnt to see if the valves hit themselves or the piston Ill check back when it aligned we can se if your at TDC with a screwdriver through the sparkplug hole

 

Hey guys,
For some reason, I got bumped off Evom last night at home. I was crafting responses to those helping, but couldn't post. I actually thought I had been kicked off. My best guess is that I had three different computers logged in to Evom at the same time (two at home, one at work) so they bumped me off.

 

I dropped it back off at the mechanic this morning and he gave me crap about pulling the cam gear cover. He said I could have dropped something in there or tinkered with it and messed it up myself! I told him that taking the cover off is akin to taking the air filter cover off and I only took it off so that I could look to see/hear what might be wrong. He says back, that is what they all say. I said to him, if I did something and wanted to be dishonest, I could have just put the cover back on and claimed I never took it off. I'm so down!!

If he overtightened the belt, and now it is making a grinding sound, does that mean it is too late to just adjust it and be done with it? Or do I probably have some damaged bearings or something?

 

The belt cant be over tightened its the belt tensioner takes car of that. He coulda dropped something into the bottom half of the cover