December 14, 200817 yr '05, OBW, 4 cyl, 5sp, 54K miles started rapping on cold (15deg F) morning on start up. Never done this b4. Would last apx 5 minutes at which time it would get less and less till it disappeared completely. Was doing this everytime it started up with verying intensity, dirrectly related to ambiant temp. That's right. It never did it... Then once it did it, it always did it on cold start up only. Took it to the dealer and was diagnosed with a bad T-belt tensioner which they replaced (on 100,000 mile warrentee). Replaced the tensioner on maintenance 15 months ago when I discovered the belt was loose on the big turdy tousand mile service. Was surprised to find the T-belt loose but there it was. Since I was already in there I did it myself. You had a warrentee and u did it yurself?! Like I said I was already in there. I saw it as a chance to bond with my car... and I've been turning wrenches a long time... That's my story and I'm sticking to it... Yes, I used a torque wrench. Replaced an Idler pully and the belt as well which I felt were SLIGHTLY worn but worn non-the-less by the slack. All this was ONLY 15 months and 15.5K miles ago after which the car ran great, smoother too, with no problem. The Sube dealer, who did the work this time, found no other issues...nothing was lose...and replaced only the tensioner saying it was "beginning to freeze". The one I replaced was frozen and the engine made no noise; just caught it on maintanence. The end result is on cold start up everything's fine...noise gone...all's well. QUESTION: So what to f@*%? Is this going to be a continuing saga? I can't believe with all these like built engines runninig around that I got two defective tensioners?! How common an issue is this??!! The first tensioner let go @ 38K/2.75 yrs and the second just 15.5K/1.5yrs latter? I guess I'll have to start pulling a belt tension inspection every 12K? Hell the new WRX uses a couple tensioners and variable ones besides to achieve their variable valve timing if I'm looking at the picture in the Performance mag correctly! EAGADS, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that complexity! So are these tensioners messing up with this kind of frequency for others out there or am I just lucky? PILGRM Edited December 14, 200817 yr by Pilgrim 54 change format
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now