Hi!
I have a 97 Toyota Corolla at 57,000 miles. I had decided that it was time to change the timing belt (for the first time for this car) and took it to a mechanic.
After timing belt was changed, I start hearing louder noise from the engine compartment. The noise sounds like strong wind from engine. The wind-like noise only happens when I am accelerating from 0 to 20-30 mph. If I accelerate from 30 mph to higher speed or drive at constant speed at 20-20 mph or higher, I do not hear any unusual noise from the engine. If I push the accelerator and increase RPM of the engine while the car is in ?neutral gear?, the engine sounds just normal.
In addition to unusual engine noise during acceleration, I start hearing vibrations coming under the hood from the passenger side of the car. The vibration noise happens only while I am driving. I would really appreciate if any of you could comment on my car problem. I do not have enough money to take my car to a dealer. Thank you very much for your time.
~eyigit
There’s not enough info known to make much of a guess as to what was or was not done.
Does the engine idle smooth; and I’m talking glass smooth with no stumble, etc?
You might consider having a parts house like AutoZone scan your car for any codes. If something was not aligned properly during the belt change it’s at least possible a code could be set. They will do this for you free and it only takes a few minutes.
Wished I could be precise on this but there is just no way of knowing. Even though your car is aged it only has 57k miles and the engine should be in as new condition with no noises or vibrations.
Wild guessing, I would say that it’s at least possible that something is not aligned correctly; camshaft, balance shaft, etc.
My feeling about a timing belt job is you should not be able to tell the car got one. The number one engine I have done timing belts on was the BMW M20 engine, try as hard as I could, I could swear that some made more belt noise after the replacement, none failed.
Engine idles smooth. While in neutral the engine is like before the replacement.
Check the air cleaner box, its fasteners, and the passage from the air cleaner box to the engine. It is possible that something was not connected or was not connected properly. That could account for both a “wind” noise and both vibration under the hood.
A belt that is too loose could cause some strange noises or vibrations. One that is too tight will usually whine.
Thank you all of you guys for answering my questions. I really appreciate it. I took my car back to mechanic this morning. He figured out that he bent a metal/rubber hose during belt replacement. Metal part of the hose was touching the car body and making vibration. He moved away the metal part from car body so that it does not touch the car body longer. However, it is still a mystery to me that how moving hose away from body fram changed the engine noise to normal. I guess maybe it was an airway or exhaust component or something, but I am happy for the result. My car is back to normal with brand new timing belt and water pump. Thank again.