Engine rattle

[Orkin]

My 93 ATX has developed a bit of a rattling noise that I was hoping someone here could help me identify. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's coming from the front end of the engine.

Here's a recording I made of it. It's not the best quality, but at least you can hear the noise I'm talking about:
Engine Rattle.wma

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[SHOtimer]

Sounded to me like a pulley wobbling around a bit. Are your idler pullies all original? Have you checked your w/p for play?

Doug

 

[Orkin]

AFAIK, my idler pulleys are the originals. I checked all the pulleys and belt tension and nothing appears to be loose. I used a reasonably facsimile of a mechanic's stethoscope (about 18" of socket extensions) to try and narrow down where the sound was coming from, and the only place I could hear it was at the right idler pulley, but it was only very faint, which makes me think that it's not the pulley itself, but it is something in that area.

Could it be the timing belt tensioner pulley bearings going out? I might try to pull the upper timing belt cover tomorrow and see if I can tell where it's coming from any better...

 

[etc1006]

Did you actually take the belt off and check? I had to, to find my w/p is bad...

 

[SHOtimer]

What you might want to try when the car is cold is to take off the acc. belt, and run the car for a bit (not long enough to hurt anything, since the wp isn't running). But that will tell you if it is an acc belt/bearing problem or a timing belt/bearing problem.

Doug

 

[Bizzy]

Ditto what Doug said. I recently did this on my son's 95.

When the belt is off you can also spin the pulleys by hand. When you spin them by hand keep a finger on the outer edge of the pulley so you can feel if there's any binding or dragging while also watching them to see if there is any play in them.