95 850 T5 rattle noise coming from front of the motor.

Thomastalan · Post by **Thomastalan** » 01 Apr 2012, 16:38

My name is Thomas and i have fallen in love with a 95 850 T5. I got it with a blown motor for 500 bucks, I found a 97 T5R motor and put it in, with help from your old posts. But now i find myself with a deep rattle coming from the front of the motor, worse when cold, worse at low revs. I read that it could be the heat shield, its not. I am new this is my first post, i am in love with this car, whatever help i could get would be most appreciated.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 01 Apr 2012, 20:05

Welcome to MVS Thomas,

The term front of the motor can be confusing. Do you mean the side nearest to the radiator or the side nearest to the passenger's side wheel well?

If it is the latter you need to figure out whether the rattle is coming from the serpentine belt driven items or the timing components. The easy way to narrow those choices down is to remove the serpentine belt and start the car. If the rattling noise stops with the serpentine belt off then it would indicate a bad bearing on something being driven by the belt like the alternator, the power steering pump, the A/C compressor, or the tensioner or idler.

The instrument cluster will light up like a Christmas tree with warning lights without the serpentine belt but don't worry about it.

If the noise remains then the problem would be in the timing belt path. Any problem in the timing belt system is serious and must be addressed at once.

...Lee

Post by **MoVolvos** » 01 Apr 2012, 20:17

Thomastalan wrote:My name is Thomas and i have fallen in love with a 95 850 T5. I got it with a blown motor for 500 bucks, I found a 97 T5R motor and put it in, with help from your old posts. But now i find myself with a deep rattle coming from the front of the motor, worse when cold, worse at low revs. I read that it could be the heat shield, its not. I am new this is my first post, i am in love with this car, whatever help i could get would be most appreciated.

Since rattle could mean a different sound to different people did you put in a new Motor Mount on the driver's side? Since you mentioned Heat Shield it may not be likely but...

Blessings,

BKM
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Post by **rspi** » 01 Apr 2012, 21:37

The best thing to do is post a video somewhere and link it here so we can listen. Welcome to the site.

Thomastalan · Post by **Thomastalan** » 01 Apr 2012, 21:40

That is a great idea about removing the serpentine belt I never even thought of that thank you, the rattle actually coincides with the vibration of the tensioner pulley. but messing with the tensioner I was not able to make the sound go away. And no when the new motor went in I was on such a budget that all of the mounts stayed from the old motor, they seem to be in pretty good shape though. Nonetheless I will check tomorrow thank you guys for all your help, I will keep you posted.

Thomastalan · Post by **Thomastalan** » 02 Apr 2012, 13:42

Ok, so i put Shirly on the rack at lunch and took the accessory drive belt off. Started her up and no more noise, so i called up worldpack and ordered a tensioner, idler and belt. After thinking hard it seems to me the noise was coming from the tensioner, the other parts are for good luck. Thank you guys for all your help, sincerely new guy.

woodchopper · Post by **woodchopper** » 10 Jan 2013, 13:18

I have this problem on a 98 V70 FWD. With a stethoscope in seemed to be the spring part of the serp belt tensioner. Took tensioner off and idler bearing seemed okay, so packed it with grease and put it back on car. Still noise. Does something happen in the spring part of the tensioner that lets it rattle at low rpm.

Post by **Ben850** » 16 Feb 2013, 08:04

I had a noise that can be described similarly from the timing belt area (front of the engine). After replacing the timing belt, I found the original hydraulic tensioner to be leaking. I am fairly sure the reatainer clip saved my engine, but the noise I was hearing was the tensioner pulley bouncing on the tensioner.

As described in the above post, it was notceable mostly at idle. The sound was like a box of rocks being tumbled. I saw a video somewhere of a Honda timing belt tensioner making the exact noise. It clearly depicted the tensioner pulley bouncing on its hydraulic tensioner.
All in now quiet on the engine front.

Add: I just realized, the exact tensioner I am speaking of is in my avatar photo. You can see it glazed in hydraulic fluid.

I found the thread.
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=52960

jacobharding · Post by **jacobharding** » 16 Feb 2013, 08:46

I had a bad rattle/squeak once. I was pretty certain it was the tensioner. It got worse and worse but was so busy with work at the time that I kept putting it off. Finally one morning I started it up and turned around to run back to the house for my wallet when I heard the most awful screeching ever. Smoke started rolling out from under the hood and the engine choked out. I thought at firs "This is gonna be bad". Fortunately it was the A/C compressor all along. The bearing were shot and the thing seized up. I just took it off and got a smaller belt. I have since removed all of the A/C system. I think the car runs so much better without the extra drag and weight anyway.

Post by **rmmagow** » 18 Feb 2013, 11:06

Mostly to Ben850 I think. If I remove the upper timing belt cover I can still start the engine and look at the hydraulic tensioner and see if there's any bouncing right? After stumbling across this post, now I am worried since my 98 V70 is doing a box-of-rocks rattle at idle. I think it is the converter coming apart but after driving around with this rattle for months and NEVER getting a cat related code, I am starting to wonder. I have a Mazda 929, same kind of tensioner, it failed and the car made a racket but I found the issue only because it felt like there was something thumping/rattling in the distributor. The tensioner in my car was installed at 165000 miles, I have 189000 on it now. Volvo tensioner.