its justlike a stut and its sealed filled wth oil.
just like a strut can blow so can this and it starts bouncing off the actual tensioner pulley and making the noise.
its a minimal amount of oil so you wont see it really
this thing is half the size of a engine torque strut that people put on for engine movement.

 

Just to add to the record, I found this thread when my 2000 TL started ticking when cold. First I replaced the serpentine tensioner. Wrong. OK, time to dive inside the timing belt covers, due for a belt swap anyway. Long story short, I couldn't get the flywheel pulley nut loose, so I took the car and the parts I bought to local Acura dealer. $770. later, I have a new timing belt, an allegedly swapped tensioner, but they didn't think I needed the (provided) tensioner pulley swapped out, so they gave it back to me.

And the tick is still there. Maybe I should print out IODPROD's 3/22/2012 note from above about the indent. So much for paying a premium for Acura specific service expertise. To be fair, it *could* be something else...

 

that sounds outrageous! you provided them with the parts, and told them to replace it. it should have been on the work order, which means they didn't fulfill their work order. and this is especially outrageous because there's so much labour involved in accessing the timing belt, it would have taken an extra few minutes to replace the tensioner pulley while it was accessible....freaking ridiculous! i'd be complaining to them every day. the work order is the work order...and you even provided the part! so pissed off for your sake...

 

pretty common for hydraulic tensioners to rattle as they start to leak. I just did my 03 legacy timing belt and the tensioner was leaking like a siv and making a knocking noise . replaced it and we are all good to go.

Good thing you got it before it completely failed.

 

I know this is older but glad you got to the bottom of it. The cam timing can cause huge power losses, specially at low rpm as you found out, even if one tooth off. I'm just trying to figure out how the tensioner could alter cam timin since it's on the slack side. If it caused a little extra stretch after being replaced it would advance the cam timing which would cause the loss in low end. If you did the belt too, that's more likely where the gain came from if it was stretched at all.

The valvetrain can take a lot of hp to spin but the power required is lower with cold, thicker oil and as rpms rise. 3,000rpm on a cold engine/oil probably removed a bunch of tension from the drive side of the system compared to hot idle. It sounds like it made the noise with more load which doesn't explain why it went away when hot. Maybe it was just the tensioner warming up and increasing in pressure. Oh well, doesn't matter now.

About the guy who was handed back his tensioner, I would be pissed.

 

would Valve adjustment help?

 

Not sure what the exact make and model is but I know that if a car rolls from the factory with Premium gas recommended, that it may knock when cold and under higher RPM if using regular unleaded.

Is premium gas recommended in your vehicle?

 

Bringing this old thread back, did most of us here had the hydraulic tensioner and rollers replaced while doing TB service and did the ticking sound went away? My 6MT TL is also making this ticking noise, kind of like idling like a diesel engine, I used to have an Auto TL and it did not sound like this at all. Just wondering what is causing this?