About a month ago the water pump went out on my wife's Pathfinder. I put it in the shop to have it AND the timing belt replaced. When I got it out of the shop it seemed to be fine. However, by approx. 2 wks. out, there began to be a noise coming from the area of the timing belt. This noise became louder very quickly and got to the point that it sounded like there was something loose and a metallic grinding noise coming from what seemed to be inside the timing belt cover. I took it back to the shop, thinking that the mechanic had left something loose in there. The shop called me to tell me that it was not the timing belt, but the distributor that was making the grinding noise and now needs to be replaced. Is it possible that this is a coincidence, or is it more likely that when the timing belt was replaced, something was done wrong that created this problem? I realize that these two mechanisms are inter-related and it seems a stretch that the distributor just happened to go out right after having the timing belt replaced. Please offer your professional opinions. Thank You!

If the timing belt was over-tightened, you would have heard the "whine" right away. Distributor shaft bushings failing on high mileage VG engines is fairly common. Likely just coincidence.