Last year around february I had my timing belt tensioner fail which made me think I had rodknock. (it sounded horrific). anyways, had the tensioner changed, the idler pulley, another pulley, and the belt itself. It was fine for a little and a couple months after i had it changed it started making the same noise sometimes on start up and only for a couple of seconds. Sometimes it starts perfectly with no noise, and sometimes it cranks weird but starts up fine and makes the noise for just a second. Idk if the weird crank is because the belt doesn’t have enough tension or if it the tensioner leaking oil and making noise.

Thanks for the help!

 

I replaced my tensioner in January of this year and it went out last month. Unfortunately the quality of parts that are available for our Monteros is getting pretty sad. I have found great success with Gates parts as of late. The tensioner I bought from them felt and looked OEM quality. The last two I got were light and could actually depressed a little bit with my hands out of the box, not the gates one, wouldn't budge a millimeter and had a normal weight to it.

Here is a sound clip of what mine sounded like when it failed (Clip is quite loud, turn down volume before playing): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jmk...ew?usp=sharing

 

First of all - was the timing belt tensioned correctly at the time of change? Having the tension set indirectly could lead to further failure down the road.
Second, cheap tensioners are cheap for a reason. It's worth getting original Mitsubishi one.
If your timing gear set is relatively new, you don't need to replace everything, but definitely change the tensioner ASAP. Make sure it's pretensions correctly.

 

A neat trick to get the eccentric tensioner into it's proper alignment / tension if you don't have the proper tools:
Once you've installed the new tensioner, stop and don't pull the pin yet! loosen the bolt on the eccentric tensioner (if it's not been done so yet) so the pulley can be swung around, rotate the pulley so that the adjustment holes are counter-clockwise a bit from where they should be, slowly tighten with your torque wrench to 48Nm or 35 ft-lbs. If done correctly, the holes will be advanced clockwise by just a hair(I'm talking millimeters here) so that when you pull the pin on the tensioner and rotate the engine over by hand a few times, the holes on the tensioner pulley will line up like in the picture I posted below.. It may take a few tries if you decide to do this method but it does work, I've done this a few times already.

Here's a reference picture to show how everything is supposed to look when it's done right. Sorry I didn't post this earlier.

 

That's a neat trick. I remember my self check step for proper tension (besides correct torque) was the fact that tensioner pin rotates freely and not binding at all when you try to pull it out. If the belt not tensioned right (ether over- or under tensioned), the pin is sitting kind of tight in there. Yes, it will still rotate, but not freely