Well, I finally got all my tuneup parts together and took it to a buddy's mechanic.
There's a 'chattering' or noise in the engine bay and I wanted to have it looked at.

Someone else first told me maybe it was the valve lifters sticking or something, but once my buddy's mechanic used his sound stethoscope and poked around, he thought it was the water pump...

Being not the first owner and not knowing the complete history, I hoped for the best...

So the timing belt cover goes off.. and boy.. was the back every cracked up. it looked like it was the original one... and still running after 153000km's.

So water pump (coolent change), timing belt, tensioner, idle pulley, 3 seals after..
then goes the tuneup: plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter.

All in all.. he charged me for 5 hrs labour, which worked out to be $300 Cdn. woot. Parts were extra, but very reasonable.

I don't wanna know how much the dealership would've gourged. :b

Just wondering if I should change the valve cover gasket since it's leaking a litttttle bit of oil.

haha u might as well man, if your going to do it do it right.