7afe WTF Is wrong with my car?!, Grinding noise Options

[Red94Celica]

Okay, so today I left to head over to my brothers house and my car just started making some loud ass noises. I dont know what causing it. It appears there is a small amount of fresh oil coming out of the motor. It sounds like it is coming from the left side of the motor, where the alternator and belts are. There is a pretty significant power loss (not that the motor is powerfull anyway lol) but especially when you get into the higher RPM range, (4500+) it basically just stops producing any power from there on out. It made the same noise the other night, so I pulled over and popped the hood and then it just stopped making the noise. So I figured that there was a chunk of snow/ice inside getting knocked around since we just had a pretty bad snow/ice storm. All help is appreciated!

Here is the oil coming out.


I took a short video of the noise, I'll have the link to that within the hour.

[alltracman78]

That oil leak is probably your valve cover gasket.

Can you tell where the noise is coming from?

Have you checked your oil level?

[Red94Celica]

I cant pinpoint the noise, however it seems to be coming from right in that general area. The oil level is a little low, not low enough for my light to come on but I should add some.

[Red94Celica]

http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s279/up...=MOV00175-1.flv

There is the video

[alltracman78]

Damn man.
I don't know if I'm hearing it right, but is sure sounds like a bad bearing....

Try to use a extension or something as a stethoscope to pinpoint where it's coming from.

Probably either the alt, water pump, or timing tensioner.
Maybe the AC, but there's hardly any load on it, so I doubt that's what it is.

[Red94Celica]

Alright. It seems to be kinda shaky while driving, like when you let off the gas it kinda jumps.

This really bugs me, because I had full intentions on ordering a c-one body kit this coming friday

[Bitter]

hmm if oil got onto the timing belt its possible it may have slipped a tooth or 2 causing your power loos. pull the timing belt covers and see if the belt or cam sprockets are oily, or if theres oil on the inside of the cover.

[Red94Celica]

Does anybody have a diagram or layout so that I can see what all I should be taking off and make sure I am doing it right? Thanks in advance.

[Red94Celica]

Well I have an update. My father came home (pretty mechanically inclined) and wanted to see how it drove so we took it out, was doing the same thing and then all the sudden everything just stopped. It shut off and now when you try and start it, all it does is the starter spins. (Brand new starter in it, so that has nothing to do with it) My dads buddy that is hear said he had a truck do something very similar and the mechanic told him that it jumped that much that it wouldnt even do anything which could be my case. I dont know..any thoughts?

At about 4800 RPMS and up it was just a completley big dead spot on the powerband. Accelerating to them was slower then the usual slowness . It kind of jumped a little whenever you would let off the gas, making a smooth shift practically impossible too.


Update: Ok, so I think we have it narrowed down to the timing belt tensior. Which has bearings in it (correct?) and the bearings went bad in there, which was giving off the clunking/grinding noise. Now it locked up isnt putting and tension on the belt is loose. There are tiny little silver shavings in there too...I dont know if you can see them in the pictures or not. So I *think* that is my problem. The motor isnt locked up, we made sure of that. So does my theory sound correct?

Pictures



This post has been edited by Red94Celica: Feb 18, 2007 - 10:19 PM

[alltracman78]

Yes, tensioner pulley has bearings.
Yes they go bad.

I would replace the T belt while you're in there, unless it was very recently changed.

Easy way to make sure.
Is there any tension on the belt?
a-If yes, release and do b, if not, go to b
b-spin pulley
c-you can take it from here

[Red94Celica]

The belt is really loose, but you cant spin it.

[Bitter]

yep, your belt jumped around alot, at first it just skipped a few teeth, but now i bet it isnt even able to spin the valve train (hence the fast cranking, no compression)

[USAssassin]

Hey my brother is a mechanic and i had him listen 2 the video and he said right when he heard the sound that it was the water pump cause he actually just had a car today making that exact same noise and the water pump was shot in it and he replaced it and everything went good after that. The car was also a celica but 7th gen.

[Red94Celica]

Hey guys, first I just want to say thanks for all the advice. My dad said that while we have all of this torn apart I should probably just replace my water pump at the same time. So I think I'm going to replace both.

[netrata]

Now it would be a good idea to replace the water pump, t-belt and t-belt tensioner at the same time

[alltracman78]

Hey guys, first I just want to say thanks for all the advice. My dad said that while we have all of this torn apart I should probably just replace my water pump at the same time. So I think I'm going to replace both.

Is your water pump accessible with the Tbelt on?
I was under the impression on the A engines it was. If so, you really don't need to change the pump unless it's bad.
The reason everything is changed at once is because it's cheaper/easier to have someone go in one time and do all of them. However if you don't have to tear it all apart to get at the pump it makes more sense to leave it alone for now.
Now sometimes the pump isn't run by the T belt and is still blocked by part of it. In which case you would obviously want to change it.
For the record, it won't hurt anything but your wallet/time to change it now either way.

Hey my brother is a mechanic and i had him listen 2 the video and he said right when he heard the sound that it was the water pump cause he actually just had a car today making that exact same noise and the water pump was shot in it and he replaced it and everything went good after that. The car was also a celica but 7th gen.

That sound is not a bad water pump sound. It's a bad bearing sound. In his case while it wasn't the water pump it was something in the same general place.
But it could have been the alt. Would have sucked if he'd torn the whole timing are apart because "it's the water pump" if it had been the alt.
Hell, a bad wheel bearing can make that sound. Obviously it wasn't a wheel bearing judging from where it came from. But that's not the point.

I'm not trying to be a d*ck with that, BTW.
I just want you to understand the difference so next time it happens [to you or someone else] you won't automatically tell them water pump.

[56willysnut]

Great pics! It's the tensioner bearing for the timing belt! In the one pic you can see the belt is loose (not pulled tight) this will allow it to jump time causing power loss problems. See if you can get it to rotate at all with your finger when tension is off the timing belt.
Also a good time to replace the camshaft seal (behind the camshaft gear) or see if the leak is coming from there. and the valve cover gasket, oil leak looks minor from the pics. Post what you find!

This post has been edited by 56willysnut: Feb 19, 2007 - 10:20 AM

[Blakout16]

from the movie and pictures. i'd look at all the possible pullies that might be loose.
have to change the timing belt. that thing looks near to dead with all those cracks in it.
in the 7afe - you have to take off the water pump/ and steering pump to get to the timing belt. most of the time people take that moment while its off to replace it.
like willy said, it might as well have been you're tensioner has gone loose allowing the timing belt to slip a couple teeth. totally throwing off your timing. which would really screw things up.

[bufferdan]

in the 7afe - you have to take off the water pump/ and steering pump to get to the timing belt.

No you dont...

Its either your waterpump or tensioner though as you already know..just replace both along with your timing belt...should do the front crank seal, cam seal and valve cover gasket while your at it

[toyotatech]

i would replace the water pump, timing belt, tensioner pulley, cam & crank oil seals.