Timing belt burning up?

[Silver Bullet]

This car makes me so tired, but I still love it...

Chis "Autosho" stopped by my house about a month or so ago, and diagnosed my SHO as having a loose timing belt. There has been lots of rapping sounds coming from the engine bay. He showed me the slack, and it was un-questionable loose. I haven't had the $$ to repair it due to the loss of my job, and have had no choice to keep driving it "as is" because it's the only car I have. This afternoon I was driving down the road, and all of the sudden the engine went into a deep/low rumble while losing power drastically. I had to almost floor it out to keep it at 40mph. The exhaust went from the usual SHO sound, to the sound almost replicating a hot V8! Though it sounded awesome, I knew this was not going to be good. Then it just sprung back to life, and resumed where it had left off (Full power and all). When I arrived home there was lots of smoke coming from the timing belt side of the motor. I would almost say I think it smells like burned rubber. There has been a noticeable "Whining" coming from that side along with the rapping noises too. It changes with the engine RPM's.

I thought I may have had bad gas, or water in the gas. At least that's what I hoped until it just did the same thing again, and I barely made it home. The car did it for 3 miles, and then just as I am about to pull onto my street came back to life again screeching the tires because the car jumped forward!! What do you guys think may be happening? I was told it was very unlikely for the belt to "Skip time", but I guess that just may be what's happening

 

[betterman]

If the belt was as loose at it sounds then it is very possible that you skipped timing. It really doesn't cost any money to fix a loose timing belt just time. I'm assuming you have an mtx since atx's have automatic tensioners. I'm pretty sure you can retension the timing belt through the access port on the timing belt cover. Of course to get to the access port you will have to remove the passenger side wheel and the splash shield.

 

[Silver Bullet]

Nope... Unfortunately I have a 93' ATX

Can someone please help me and post the replacement procedure for the timing belt on an ATX? I would be most grateful!!

 

[Slo-Sho]

If it's loose on the ATX...You probably have a faulty gas piston tensioner...$$$...

 

[yamahaSHO]

There is also a possiblity that who ever changed the belt may not have put the centering washer on. If this is the case, you'll eventually have slots worn into the timing covers.

 

[AutoSHO]

The gas piston on the tensioner is definately the problem in this case. As for the random power loss, I don't really know what to make of that.

Go here for a great guide on how to replace the timing belt (3.2L instructions start abuot halfway down):

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiB..._us/0900823d/80/0b/f7/88/0900823d800bf788.jsp

 

[Rob94]

The gas piston on the tensioner is definately the problem in this case. As for the random power loss, I don't really know what to make of that.

Agreed. If it was jumping time, I don't see it coming back into time. The obvious thing to do at this time however is to replace the tensioner and the belt. I know Torrie at FPN has the MTX tensioner for $88. I'd send him an email and ask if he stocks the ATX one.