I think there is a bolt in the center of one of the timing covers. It might be possible to put too short of a bolt there and in the process of tightening it, pull the plastic cover inward enough to contact the belt. That's just a guess though. Does it do that without the covers attached? Don't run it without the harmonic balancer.

 

That really sounds like the timing belt has slack... on my phone right now so can’t hear super well, but it’ll sound like right around the 1.5-2K range. Another possible thing is to run the engine with the top cover off. If you see the timing belt flutter excessively, it needs to be tension. The 5SFE doesn’t have a hydraulic tensioner, so when installing the belt, make sure All the slack is on the tensioner side before loosening the tensioner pully bolt and tightening it. There’s a tensioner spring that can be replaced. Again, it’s manual design so the belt wears, you could loosen the bolt so the spring can take up the slack in the belt in the future.

There was a thread here... I’m on my mobile phone so it’s hard to find it. I’ll let the other peeps link it... hopefully .

 

Daaamn! Thought it was diesel when on idle

 

Remove the upper timing cover and post another video.

 

So today i pulled the cover back finally when i had the chance.and the belt is for sure flapping around and the tensioner definitely came loose. so spoke to mechanic and its going back tomorrow morning. hes gonna re do the job again as well as do the cam bearing. ill keep this updated after.

 

"do the cam bearing"

What does this mean? There is nothing to be serviced or replaced. The only exception is if you remove the bearing cap to replace the cam seal then RTV is reapplied.

I would find another mechanic or do the work yourself.

 

^+1. Unless he actually said "cam seal", like 71Corolla mentioned. That would make sense.