I have a 1993 civic dx and recently i loud noise was coming from within the timing belt covers so i stopped driving it and took the top cover off to find that the timing belt was slipping off of the sprockets and was hitting the side of the valve cover. I bought the car for $500 and I dont have much money to put into repairs, but I was wondering if the timing belt could have possibly stretched and so I should replace it or if for some reason it got slack from the belt tensioner or something else and is there any kind of deflection test on the timing belt? I know the alternator belt should bend about half an inch with ten pounds of force but what about the timing belt? Also if I just slide it back on without taking it off do I have to go through the whole process of positioning piston one at TDC?

This post has been edited by ladeedawdeedaw: Mar 28 2009, 04:05 PM

Timing belts can stretch. It really depends if you should replace the belt or not. If it was my car i would pull all the covers off set the engine to TDC and then retention the belt. I'm sure that you can set the timing belt tension by how much it deflects. The way I do it is I twist on the drive side of the belt or the side that doesn't have the water pump and tensioner. You should be able to twist the belt about 90 degrees but no further.