1999 Mazda 626 Ticking sound near belts

MY1999MAZDA626

MEMBER
1999 MAZDA 626
FWD
AUTOMATIC
180,000 MILES

There is a ticking sound between the belts and the engine. It appears to be a plastic cover over what I think are engine pulleys or something hitting against the cover. There are also shards of black plastic on the underside of the hood and on near engine components. Whatever is ticking is shredding and falling on the belts and the belts are throwing it up on the underside of the hood. Any idea and what I need to do to fix it or is this engine dead?

1 Reply

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

If parts are being shredded, it should be easy to know which part is that. Seems like the timing belt cover is the cause and having it replaced should solve the problem.

If it is anything to do with the timing belt cover, it should be rectified as soon as possible because if foreign objects were to get to the timing belt, it can cause the timing belt to skip tooth.

The other thing is if the timing belt is too loose, it would hit against the timing belt cover and this can cause the cover to shred. Not much chance for this to be the cause because if the timing belt tension is excessively loose, it would most probably have broken long ago.

The final thing to check woulf be the crank pulley itself. It has a damper and if the damper is disintegrating, it would cause the pulley to wobble.