Timing belt replacement and timing

Thank you, Joe.

Our mechanic rechecked the timing belt and teeth. He said they were fine.

Since then we have had to replace our thermostat since it was sticking open. Our mechanic said that if the engine is not running at optimal temperature (such as when the thermostat stays open), the mileage could go down. We are still monitoring the mileage after the new thermostat, but city driving shows no mileage improvement.

I changed the spark plugs last summer, and the mileage increased. I have not taken the car in for an "official" tune up because the mileage was very good (before our work).

The engine seems to run very well. It is just the decrease mileage since the timing belt work. Not sure what else to check.

Thanks again.

Darwin

Noises problem
2002 Hyundai Elantra 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Automatic

I had my timing belt replaced by a mechanic and every morning when I start the car, I hear a screeching sound for 2 seconds and it goes away and its coming from the timing belt part because I opened the hood and my wife started the car. THe noise can only be heard everytime I start the car in the morning.

The tension on one or more belts may be incorrect, the belt was installed improperly or they failed to replace an old, worn tensioner. Go back and have it checked ASAP.

Most likely the noise is coming from a loose drive belt and not the timing belt. If the drive belts were not replaced during the timing belt replacement, they should have been double checked for tightness because old belts need to be adjusted tighter than new belts. By now the belts are probably glazed anyway so have them replaced.

My mechanic said that I should to replace the timing belt on the car as preventive maintenence.

Does anyone know what else is typically replaced/repaired when doing the timing belt?

Usually the water pump, but you can hold off a little longer. If your nevous because it's an interference motor here's a simple trick to ease your mind. Remove the top portion of the timing cover and do a visual inspection of your belt. If there's no oil, damage or stress lines on belt I would hold off. Unless the car has sat or ben driven hard. But factory spec does call for the t-belt to be changed at 60000 interval. But I changed quite a few and usually they have more life than that. Also if you want to take it a step farther you can spin the balancer so you can inspect whole belt. Hopes this was informative.

My car is a four cylinder, two wheel drive, manual transmission with 194,000 miles. Having camshaft on TDC, please help me align timing belt sprocket (two marks on this, which one do I align to front of engine there is a hole in the sprocket, should it be at six o'clock?), And where should the valve cam marks be?
Robert

With reference to your drawing for the engine timing marks above, I had this same problem with understanding these marks. I replaced the head gasket in my engine without pulling the engine out of the car and have everything put back together but cannot get my car to run.

Do the cam shaft markings have to be lined up with the cam chain markings when the timing belt cam shaft pulley is at TDC? My crankshaft marks lines up with the chain marks but not when the crankshaft timing pulley is at TDC. Is that normal?

The other thing I need to know is this. Since I did not have an engine hoist and did not pull the engine, the motor mount on the passenger side is in the way. I cannot remove the crank shaft pulley or the lower timing belt cover. have been using the mark on the crankshaft pulley to line up with the zero degree mark on the plastic TDC indicator on the lower timing belt cover. Is this acceptable for lining up the crank shaft at TDC?

I do not know what I am doing wrong but if my timing marks are lined up right I can at least eliminate that as my problem. Thanks for your help!