Hey all...gotta problem with my 5sfe. i took it to my mechanic and have gone to a buddy who does a bunch of work on his 5s camry and still haven't been able to figure it out. the engine does a wierd whirry noise. its kinda hard to explain. but it makes the noise at all times...whether in neutral or in 4th gear. My mechanic has said it could be a number of things which have been replaced. starting with the power steering pump, then the timing belt and the tensioner, and the water pump. problem didn't go away after blowing about 300 bucks. then i decided to go look at it myself with a friend. he is still kinda amateur but he knows how to pull apart his 5sfe and put it back together so i figured i could trust him. we replaced belts and then checked and replaced a pulley (with a pully off his camry which he said was still good) and the whirring noise went away. then when i go to leave his house the engine made a horrible noise like if something was grinding plastic...so we pulled it back apart and turned out the timing belt wasn't tight enough so we tightened it. we put it back together and the whiring noise was back so then we took off the oil pump and checked the gear. it seemed fine so we put it back.

so obviosly i've gone through lots of crap trying to fix it. its bugging the heck out of me. lol. hopefully i didn't bore anyone with my super long explanation or confuse anyone any advice or help would be very appreciated..

This post has been edited by Rook: Jul 21, 2009 - 10:15 AM

sounds internal, or maybe crank pulley

timing belt tensioner, was that replaced?

well..the belt tensioner is brand new from toyota. I have checked all the pulleys...the noise doesn't seem to be coming from any of them.

the engine has been leaking/burning up oil too. slowly but surely. i havent seen any on the ground or anything so idk if its burning it up or leaking small amounts to where i don't ever see it. think that may have anything to do with it?? i checked the troubleshooting in the haynes manual and it said something about maybe head gasket leaking...idk.

oh and one more question...there's a part we've had to deal with alot to get to all the pulleys and such. my camry bud calls it the harmonic balancer....it comes off the crankshaft. The AC-alternator and power steering belts run off it. think that could be it?? idk just trying to give as much info as possible. lol.

definately check the harmonic balancer/aka crank pulley. sometimes the rubber wears out and the two pulleys will separate. or i imagine since its hot you use your a/c is it louder when the ac is on/off?

honestly i barely use ac to save on gas. lol. but it doesn't really sound louder i just feel like the car gets robbed of hp more than it should. like today i had it on and it took the car forever to hit sixty when it normally hits 80 easy on that road.

not the serpentine or accessory belt tensioner, the timing belt tensioner. you tightened the timing belt and the sound got worse, you loosened it and it got better, its something to do with the timing belt. is there an idler for the 5S-FE timing belt? that could be bad as well.

well...i've been looking it up on my manual and online. i haven't seen anything about timing belt idler...

pretty sure there is a timing belt idler, it comes up in parts catalogs online for the GT.

oh you mean this??

http://www.car-stuff.com/store/?Ntt=Timing...94963860%2B1725

yeah thats the pulley i was talking about that we took off my friend's camry. he said it was still in real good condition when he took it off not too long ago...

well something is amiss somewhere obviously. run the car with the accessory belts off of it and see if the sound is still present. if it is, it really narrows it down. pull the timing covers and use something as a stethoscope to listen to the pulleys one at time.

yeah i did that too. well...without the stethoscope. lol. but as i replaced the belts we'd take one off turn the car on then turn in off and do it again for the power steering belt. the noise didn't go away. i agree though it definitely is there since it went away when the timing belt was loose. idk i'm stumped.

its got to be something with the timing belt or something inside the engine.

yeah. idk. guess i'll have to keep poking around of or something. thanks everyone.

my stx makes a wirring noise but ive narrowed it down to the altinator

Well i've been doing research and asking around... i'm told it more than likely'll be an over tightened timing belt. i tried to work on it but seems like i'll have to take out the motor mount. with school and work...i'm not sure when i'll be able to do it. lol. but soon probably.