After several attempts over the last 6 months the source of an odd, and heretofore undetermined, "rattle" under the hood of the Escort has finally been found;
It seems that the timing belt has stretched to the limit of the tensioner movement range, and at little beyond even. I have never once seen a timing belt stretch that far, regardless of age or miles. And this belt is only about 3 years and 10K miles old. It is so loose that you can see it flap back and forth on the forward side when it gets revved with no load, vibrating into the into the strip of aluminum casting that forms the forward part of "belt cover", a distance of a solid inch. Engine off, it takes almost no effort to deflect it with a single finger that inch into the "cover". The only other possible thing is a defective tensioner that was built with a reduced movement range, but that seems very unlikely considering it had plenty of range when I last did the timing belt/tensioner change.
So, anyone ever seen a timing belt actually stretch like this? Thoughts? BTY, I have no memory of which brand the belt is.
