My 4G started having a loudish rattling sound on cold starts this fall. Then more recently a squeaking has been added to the mix on cold starts. Looking for confirmation that I need to replace the timing belt as this is what other searches have suggested.

 

the art of car repairs is the act of visual intelligence.
you will need to visually find clues of what is wrong...

to me; that sounds like a bad tensioner....so, one would need to visually inspect and troubleshoot the tensioners on the accessory belt and timing belt...before actually changing them..
because if you go in blind and change a tensioner without actually diagnosing the actual tensioner, you would just waste time and money.


The accessory belt is the easiest of the two to diagnose...
You can pull the belt off and run the car to see if noise is still present. if noise is gone, accessory tensioner is at fault...if noise is still present, i would suspect the timing belt tensioner.

another clue would be mileage...the timing belt is due at 105k miles....if you are anywhere close to that mileage, it might be time to change the timing belt and it's tensioners and the water pump.

 

Hey did you ever find out what that rattling sound was? Mine just started doing the same thing not as loud as yours but it's pretty bad. Thank in advance.

 

Mine is a 2009 TL with 130 000 KM on it. I think it will be time for a timing belt soon. It has a similar sound on startup but disappears when I have it out for 5 minutes/warmed up.

 

I had a funky sound at cold start up similar to this. I had a new timing belt / tensioner put in and it's fixed.

 

if you don't mind me asking how much did you pay to get the service done