auto tensioner design?????

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J

jdmh22hatch

Member
I'm wondering if someone can explain to me how the h22 auto tensioner works. Sounds like a stupid question, but I was under the impression that the auto tensioner would add tension as needed to compensate for belt wear. However, the problem I've been having is that after sitting for a night, my timing belt will have no tension on it in the morning. The first time I ran into this, I didn't want to start the car, so I turned the engine a couple times by hand, and the tension came back. Every day though, I have no tension on the belt in the morning, but the car will start and run fine, and tension returns. It seems to have to sit for an extended period before the tension will back off. I always thought that the auto tensioner would add tension, but never lose it, or at the very least, once tension was gone it would not return. Now I'm really not sure. Is this the way it was designed to work, or is this a sure sign of failure. Additionally, I do have a noise coming from the timing belt area, which I seem to have narrowed down to coming from the cam gears right under the timing belt cover portion of the valve cover. It's a whine, most audible at curb idle, but can be heard right up to about 4k rpm. Sounds almost like bearing noise to me, although it could possibly be timing belt rubbing in the cover. However, I understand how hard it is for someone to diagnose a noise they can't hear, but that was not really the purpose of writing that. I'm not sure if this is related to a possibly failing auto tensioner or not, but it might help if someone else has had the same problems or symptoms I'm having. By the way, I swapped the engine in about a month ago, and have 4000kms including a long road trip on it (20 hours of solid driving over a two day period) and only the whine has gotten slightly more audible, but timing belt tension issues have been unnaffected since started the engine for the first time. If anyone can possibly help me it would be greatly appreciated, because I'd like to catch a possible tensioner failure before I do major damage.
 
basically in high hp applications or with after market cams there is alot more timing belt slap. when the timing belt slaps it goes from loose to to tentioned very quickly, it is during these periods that the auto tensioner "tightens" up and puts more strain on the timing belt and itself. With the added stress the belt is now too tight and the tentioner is forced to hold a tension too great, one or the other eventually fails.. belt snaps of auto tentioner craps out.

auto tensioner is ok for a bone stock motor but, add any upgrades and i recommend the manual tensioner.

these parts are needed to convert:

14510-PT0-004 - ADJUSTER COMP., TIMING BELT
14516-PT2-000 - SPRING COMP., TIMING BELT ADJUSTER
90014-P14-A00 - BOLT, TIMING BELT ADJUSTER BASE
90015-PT0-000 - BOLT, TIMING BELT ADJUSTER SPRING
90016-PT0-000 - BOLT, TIMING BELT ADJUSTER
90140-P14-A00 - WASHER, PLAIN (11MM)
 
point well taken, although it is a stock motor, without any serious mods. I did however manage to get ahold of a tech at a local honda shop today who confirmed that it indeed was not the way the auto tensioner should work. Tension should never come off the belt at all. Thanks for the parts list, but due to time constraints, I am not able to pull the engine, so, do you know if it's possible to do the auto to manual tensioner swap while the engine is still in the car??????
 
Just an update, I finally got around to pulling the timing belt out, and found two problems. Water pump bearings are shot, which should be the cause for whining at idle and low rpm driving. Also, all the fluid leaked out of my tensioner. Won't be reusing one of those again ever. Still waiting for advice though on swapping to manual tensioner while engine is in the car. Any thoughts. Now that I have it apart, there is actually more room in there than I thought. Hardest part is getting the cover off. I have read though that the one bolt you have to remove from the block when swapping tensioners is really tough to get out. I would expect more problems since I have not pulled the engine. Anyone done this swap with the engine in the car. Engine is only making stock horsepower though, so is it worth it?????
 
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