tatuinyou

Well on to my next nightmare with this car..At idle my car makes this nasty rattling noise in the front of the engine.as soon as the idle is bumped up it goes away.so i pull the wheel off and stick my ear down there and its coming from the harmonic balancer.Local mechanic says its a common problem with these cars.so i go buy a new one (89 bucks yikes) but before i put it on i start the engine and without it on there and i hear i here no noise so im thinkin good deal..i get the car all put back together with the new balancer, fire it up and its starts rattling right away again..anyone know why this is happining and what i can do to cure it of should i just push it off a cliff?

Brian

LunaticSVT

It could be a few things....

The belt automatic tensioner spring can become weak and the idler pully can be flapping against the belt because it is not holding tension. This could be the tapping sound you are hearing.

Could also be as simple as low oil pressure causing lifter tick.


Of course, the HB could be the problem again. I know you dont want to hear that. BUT getting the new one on is a pain and I have seen a few shops mess this up. Simply because you have to line up the key in the crank with the slot in the balancer and its almost impossible to see. The balancer gets tight on the crank before the key goes into the slot so its easy to be slightly misaligned.

Hope this helps you out some.