Timing Belt
 

Honda recommends changing the timing belt at 160,000 km, however I am feeling some differences and hearing a little ticking under there.

Do you think I should do my belt, water pump and have them do a valve adjustment now?? Im at 112,000 km.

It's better to be safe then sorry, but you could always have the valve's adjusted and just get the timing belt and water pump inspected. I don't think the valve noise would have anything to do with the timing belt.

When I had my car tuned-up at 100k's, Honda said the belt didn't have any cracks or teeth missing and the pump still looked good. So, I'm holding out until 160 which will be real soon. I'm still looking for somewhere to have it changed.

I had my valves adjusted at 96K, so thats less than 20K ago. It ran nice for awhile and now again I see minor changes (by the way I am really **** about the running of the car, so really small issues piss me off). So if not the timing, what else could be causing things to be off??

Michelle, the belt gives no warning... it's either working, or it's snapped. There is no changes in noise levels at all. This is unlike a chain, which would get even louder once it's stretched out a little bit.

The ticking and so on can be just a winter thing... are you hearing like a valve noise - repetitive clacking of constant volume, and related to engine speed... or is it ticking, or clicking or ??

Winter really does make a car sound different. It affects a lot of things in there, so you have to be specific in the changes you've noticed.

Maybe the weather. Mine tick when it's cold occasionally. Maybe try a different oil.

use what Honda recommends for oil! unless you can get your hands on 0W30 if such a thing exists.

Its definately a repetitive thing...its a tick at a constant volume (sounds like the mice powering my motor are scratching to get out), however I can only hear it at idle as my header and intake noise drown everything else out when I step on the gas.

I understand winter changes alot of things and I recognize those noises (not a big deal to me), but this is different and it doesn't change between -15 and +10.

As for oil, I put in Valvoline full synthetic last time (freebie), but normally I run Motul (if I go to Parkway) or Mobil 1 (when in Whitby) always 5W30 (recommended).

can you ID where specifically the noise comes from... it could be the distributor or the valve cover or one of the accessories (a/c, alternator, power steering), or the bottom end??

I would THINK what you are hearing is maybe the distributor sparking if the cap and rotor have worn down enough to start making sparking noise from the current jumping a bigger gap.