Piece came off my car...

[katapaltes]

I was under my hood today looking at my valve cover gasket and noticed a stray piece of oil-soaked plastic around my timing belt cover. I started tickling it and it just came right out like a baby tooth. Some history: The valve cover bolts had worked themselves loose - literally only finger-tight - back at 99,000 miles and the car has 112,000 miles now. The car is not currently loosing oil as I tightened those valve cover bolts, but a quart of oil leaked during the time the bolts were loose and that's what you see in the pics. In the top pic, you can see some pad foaming at the top of the broken piece if that helps identify it. Can anyone tell me what part this piece came from and what I would need to replace? I will be replacing the valve cover gasket soon since it's leaking a [very] tiny bit nowadays. My car just turned 13 years old from the day I brought him home.

<a href="http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/katapaltes/media/car-piece-1_zpshs0rysw6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah127/katapaltes/car-piece-1_zpshs0rysw6.jpg" border="0" alt="P5 plastic piece off car photo car-piece-1_zpshs0rysw6.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/katapaltes/media/car-piece-2_zpsv2w1v3o0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah127/katapaltes/car-piece-2_zpsv2w1v3o0.jpg" border="0" alt="P5 plastic piece on car photo car-piece-2_zpsv2w1v3o0.jpg"/></a>

 

[Maroon]

My initial thought of the picture before reading your description was that the part was a section of your timing belt cover. Is there a part of your timing cover missing? I would in inspect this first. The cover should be contacting the engine block or head all around it's perimeter. There are no gaps.

Some have complained about the timing belt rubbing on the timing cover. I don't know where on the cover because I've never experience the problem. I also don't know if it's bad enough to cut a piece of it off.

I forget, what is the timing belt change interval? It's either 100,000 or 110,000. If you need a new cover, just do it when you do the timing belt. Leaving it open until the belt replacement isn't a problem.

99,000 miles in 13 years? I wish!

 

[katapaltes]

Thanks, Maroon. I thought the same thing, but I felt around and couldn't find any gaps in the timing belt cover around where I found the piece. Still, it's the most likely culprit at this point given the curve in the piece and the foam padding on it which I can easily imagine being on the cover. The timing belt replacement interval is 105,000 miles, but I'm not going to replace mine until around 150,000 (unless I find that oil leaked onto the belt due to the loosened valve cover bolts I mentioned above). I hadn't heard about the timing belt potentially rubbing on the cover. I'm going to have to dig around for info on that.

 

[katapaltes]

Yep, it was a piece of the timing cover as far as I can tell. I'm not sure, but the oil leak into the timing belt area may have contributed to this piece breaking/burning/getting sawed off. Now I wonder if I can replace that cover without taking the valve cover back off or any other parts off (like belts). If I can't replace it easily, I'm just going to leave it.
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...hanging-the-timing-belt&p=6426149#post6426149

 

[pcb]

... If I can't replace it easily, I'm just going to leave it...

There's a lot of work to do to replace the T-belt cover... It's the first half of a T-belt job.

Some guys have run their car with no covers.

Now you can probably see in there to keep an eye on the T-belt.

 

[katapaltes]

Just wanted to update this thread and re-add the pics. The mechanic who's installing a used engine in my car this week pointed out that the replacement engine has the same section broken off of the timing belt cover as my old one. He said he's seen it before, too; always breaks in that same place. He said he would cut away any extra if needed to make sure it's not rubbing the belt. The belt on the replacement engine is Gates, so it's already been replaced. I was going to replace my original belt around 150k miles, but I guess I'll have to find another project.