2.4LSanta Fe - timing belt, new vibration

Hi - I have a 2003 2.4L Santa Fe, 59K miles. Last week, the crankshaft
sensor failed. I have a good local mechanic, who replaced the sensor.
Since everything was open, he went ahead and did the timing belt, too.
Since then, the engine has a new subtle but noticeable vibration. We
checked the belt timing, and it was per specs. The vibration is
noticeable when you look at the engine in idel, and it's very
noticeable when driving, especially when RPM is 2400 or above. Engine
seems to "search" just a bit for the right gear.

I suspect that the timing belt balancer is not properly timed. If so,
what do I tell the mechanic? Will he have to completely disassemble to
re-install from scratch?

Is there something else that we should be looking at? I assume that
not fixing the vibration will cause some engine wear issues.

Thanks,

Jim

 

A balance belt vibration is more noticeable as you describe above at higher
rpm's. It's a very high frequency vibration, about 8 times frequency of a
misfire.

The front balance shaft is tricky to time on this engine. Lining up the
marks isn't sufficient because the sprocket drives the oil pump and 2:3
gear drives the balance shaft.

Unfortunately, significant assembly would be required to check, and
everything apart before would have to be taken apart again to retime.

The official procedure for timing the balance shaft in the service manual
is to insert a screwdriver in a hole in the block, but this is
unfortunately behind the compressor or exhaust or something else I don't
remember because I refuse to spend the ridiculous amount of time necessary
to pull whatever it is out of the way.

With the front balance sprocket marks lined up, turn the sprocket to one
side a little. If it wants to continue turning away, it's timed wrong.
If it wants to turn back to realign the marks, then it'll be timed right.

 

Thanks - I've called the mechanic, who now seems to know which sprocket
to turn which way, with what quantity of beer to apply wherever.

Jim

 

This sounds like something the whole chat group should get invited to

Tom Wenndt