Okay. Here's the deal. About 5,000 miles ago, I performed a complete HLA (hydraulic lash adjuster) service on my engine. I took the opportunity to also change the timing belt. For some stupid reason, I thought I'd "service" the timing belt tensioner by taking it apart and refilling it with hydraulic fluid. I put everything back together: a new timing belt was installed with the "serviced" tensioner.
The car ran fine for a little while, but then started making some noises around the area of the timing belt. These ticking/clicking noises are intermittent and not constant. They actually go away when idling at a stop light and might not start up again until the car is restarted and run for a bit. So I ordered a new timing belt tensioner, figuring my "service" was to blame.
I installed the new timing belt tensioner, when it arrived, and kept the new timing belt I had previously installed installed. Now that I am experiencing the same issues, which did go away for a time, I'm guessing I should have replaced BOTH the timing belt AND the tensioner at the same time, even though the new timing belt had less than, say, 100 miles on it.
The car has now been driven as such, with this intermittent noise, for about, oh, I dunno, at least 3,000 miles. It comes and goes, hasn't died on me, so it's just always been a nagging thought at the back of my mind.
At this point, my question would be: Is there another way to "tension" the timing belt without going back in and reinstalling a new belt AND a new tensioner??? I see a belt tensioner pulley, but that is "tensioned" by the timing belt tensioner, or pusher, as some call it.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. I'd just hate to go and install a new tensioner AND belt and have this problem reoccur.
Aaron