A couple of weeks ago I noticed a ticking coming from the area of the timing belt. It's been gradually getting worse. I took this video on Saturday just after I washed the engine bay (hence why my clear timing cover is fogged up).



The timing belt was changed about 12,000 miles ago and the tensioner, balance shaft belt, water pump, and one of the smaller pulley were replaced. The pulley behind the steering pump was not replaced.

Any ideas what this could be?

 

sounds like a bad pulley i guess? can you take the liquid soap from your house and rub it on the accessory belt and see if it goes away to get that out of the way first?

next could you remove the timing cover and check the deflection of the timing belt up and down?

ill try to help the best i can, but ive never heard that type of noise before.

 

I appreciate your willingness to help me diagnose this! I'll try both of your suggestions tomorrow after work and see what results I get. My intuition tells me it's not the accessory belt, but it's certainly doesn't hurt to check especially if it ends up saving me from having to tear into the timing belt. My fear is that Murphy once again will have proven that the one pulley I didn't replace is the one going bad...

 

sounds like what a bearing sounds like when it goes bad. either that or somethings rubbing in there. take off your upper and lower timing covers and go look at everything would be the first step id say.

 

I have the same exact issue!!! On mine it only does it when on a cold start then goes away when the car warms up. Mine dosents sound harsh more like a ticking noise but very familiar. Let me know if it goes away after what the other guy said to do. I'm sure it has to be a pullie

 

dealer fixed mine and wrote replaced cam shaft sprockets on mine

 

another words your timing belt was probably tensioned to much and beating the bearings to death in the tensioner and idler pulley of the timing belt..

dealerships are weird sometimes.. i highly doubt they replaced a cam shaft sprocket, that's not something that just goes bad lol.

 

i had this same ticking sound coming from my ix which was only on cold starts nd progressively started getting worse. so i replaced my belt and all my tensioners and started it up with the timing cover still off after the new parts were installed. the ticking was still there. and it sounded to me like it was coming from the oil pump pulley area. so i was afraid my pump was dieing nd just went ahead and pulled my motor for the build i had already planned on doing. this makes me wonder now what it was if you guys are experiencing it also. keep us updated on what you find out

 

I had this type of noise before. I readjusted my timing belt tension and balance shaft belt and it was fine after that. This was a few days after the dealer did a timing belt. Im sure it was too tight.

When I started to tear my engine down for my build, I noticed wear on the oil pump gears. I figured the noise earlier was from the oil pump so i replaced it.

 

Goo! I really hope it's not my oil pump going... would seem odd at only 80,000 miles... I'll check the tension of the belt this weekend when I get a chance to remove the timing belt covers. I do only notice the ticking when the engine is cold. After being warmed up it's gone.

 

Seems to be a common issue.I have also this terrible sound coming outa my ix.under warranty still. called mitsu and suppose to drop it off tommorow so they can hear/diagnos problem. Car has 43k been doing noise 4 about 20kmiles now .got tired of hearing it.

 

wish I was still under warranty... some more reading makes me think that my timing belt probably is too tight thanks to either a malfunctioning tensioner or it was improperly installed.

 

Did you replace the serp belt? Take it off and let the car run see if the noise is gone. If it is is either the belt or something driven off the belt.