JCRDX

I’ve read a bunch of threads here and through the wisdom of others and the process of elimination have identified the hydraulic timing belt tensioner as my culprit. (Loud ticking when cold starting, but not every time)

I had it into the dealer for regular service last week and asked them to take a look — they want to replace the timing belt ~$1400 worth. I do not believe they had time to visually inspect anything and relied on my description and audio file. (Which I can’t seem to upload here)

Should I ask them (or another shop) to replace only the tensioner since I only have 70,000 miles on it? Or do I bite the bullet and get the whole package? It’s a 2017, bought new.

altair47

To change the timing belt tensioner you need to remove the serpentine belt, the serpentine belt tensioner, the upper timing covers, the crankshaft pulley, the lower timing cover and remove the tensioner itself, this job will take less than 2 hours labor. For this, go to another shop that will do this job for you.

JCRDX

Thank you. I wasn’t really sure how involved it would be. Should I have them replace anything else along the way? The serpentine belt?

altair47

Of course, if you want you can change the serpentine belt, it's lucky that the OEM belt on Amazon ( 6PK1170 ) costs $10.44 .

dtownfb

Before you spend that kind of money for a ticking noise that only happens sometimes, why not get it diagnosed by an independent shop that specializes in Honda/Acura first? Replacing the timing belt at 70k miles on a 2017 RDX seems overkill to me.

TheSauceBoss

Further, if you're going to go through the trouble of removing the crank pulley, side engine mount, and timing covers just for the tensioner, you might as well do the whole 105k service replacing the TB, tensioner, pulleys, and water pump while you're in there.

JCRDX

Yes and yes. These two posts above hit my dilemma square on:

​​​​​​​A. Doing the 105k service at 70k seems like overkill.
B. Replacing the tensioner and not doing the 105k service at the same time seems shortsighted.