camry engine noise rattling sound on cold starts

the noise happens at low rpms, and loud on cold starts. the previous owner says that the noise started after he took it in to change the water pump, coolant and timing belt. after 10 mins, it quiets down. i get very poor gas mileage. 17 mpg average while ecodriving. 90k miles 4 cylinder 1998. using stethoscope, the noise is coming from inside the timing belt case near the water pump. i checked the sparks and distributor.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• camry
• engine
• noise
• rattle
• vibration
• sound
• timing
• belt
• water
• pump
• piston
• slap
• rod
• knocking

[CBZED101]

Mine used to make this noise and my crank pulley fell apart. The actual "teeth" part of the pulley rattled off of the harmonic balancer.

[thewhitenight]

@CBZED101 o man.....recently ive noticed that its always been having a bad smell of burning (rubber?) after driving half an hour. especially noticable with vents open...

[g65248]

did u figure out what it was my car has the same problem and it would die sometimes and now it wont even turn on

[thewhitenight]

@g65248 no i havent. but i think one of the commenters here are right. it might be the tensioner belt. i havent had mine shut down on me yet. how does it sound when you try to turn it on? did you rule out the alternator?

[DaChocolateOne]

I can appreciate this video and all of your comments. I've got the same noise/problem going on with my 97 Camry & my wife is buggin me about the noise...lol

[svenska208]

timing belt problem



[waskin25]

hey g65248, my girls car did also died sometimes. It turned out to be the alternator belt was loose and not charging the batt fully. when she drew power from the batt, the lights would dim or it would stall out and not start for a sec. It also caused the immobilizer light to stay on while driving.. I bet your batt drained, caused by a loose alternator belt, which the bad tensioner caused and the noise is the tensioner. That is if the the noise eventually stops when warm like my girls did.

[waskin25]

that sounds right my girlfriends 01 civic auto started doing it after i tightened the alternator belt cause it was squealing, a day or two later it was making the same noise when cold. I thought it had to be something with pulleys/alternator bearings or tensioner..or in the worst case... the timing belt or the water pump like dueceswild said...but it doesnt make sense...it slowly gets quieter as she drives then stops after about 10 min. I think the timing belt slowly tightens when warming up.

[artecole]

It is the timing belt rattling. I have the exact same problem with my 98 Camry, it sounds horrible but i kept driving it for about 8 months until timing belt broke. I replaced it and all is good, not embarrassed to drop the kids off at school anymore