Just had the timing belt, water pump, tensioner etc replaced and now the engine rattles on startup and shut down. Also when I turn the AC on or put the car in reverse. Any Ideas. This is the 4 cyclinder v-tech.

 

I'm inclined to blame the recent work, somehow. Remove the external drive belts & check for loose noisy bearings in the alternator or AC clutch.

The engine mount at the drive belts has to be removed. Did the shop remember to tighten everything?

 

Could the harmonic balancer gears not have been aligned to the block when the timing belt was replaced?

 

The gears on the rear balance shaft do not have to be dismantled when you do the timing belt. But if they WERE taken apart, then ???

 

When I did the t-belt on my F22, the balance shaft had a mark at 90* and 180* in regards to 0* being on a horizontal plane. Do the 4 cyls. have 2 balance shafts? I could've sworn it was on the front side of the block...

 

I've done a '92 F22 & a '98 F23 & both of those had 2 balance shafts. Only the front one has a replaceable seal; the rear seal is built into the gear drive thingie. I think dynamically there HAS to be 2 shafts rotating in opposite directions (that's why one is geared).

 

That does make sense to have 2 and now that I think about it, I remember the rear one. Wouldn't they both need to be geared in order to keep them both rotating the same speed to cancel out the vibrations. I guess my original idea was that the mechanic may have overlooked the fact that the balance shafts need to be lined up to the block when changing the t-belt.

 

Only one geared (1:1 gearing to reverse direction), because they have to rotate in opposite directions to each other.

The balance shafts have their own timing belt (in addition to the camshaft timing belt). If those shafts are out of time, I'd expect the engineto vibrate, which I wouldn't call a 'RATTLE'. And it would be ALWAYS, not just startup & shutdown. But I can't hear it from here, so maybe that's it.

 

I agree. Out of timing balance shafts would cause a constant vibration, but maybe cause something else to rattle over the vibration? The vibration would get worse at a linear rate with the engine speed, but then again people do take their balance shafts out of the block....