So my son is in Colorado (I'm in Minnesota) and he just called me and told me under his hood is coming a rocks in a can sound, that I from investigating other posts it's the probably the timing chain and tensioner. The shop he got it to is telling him it's probably going to be at least 5 hours plus parts to fix the problem. My question is to you guy's is...1. Does the time quoted sound correct, and if not what should it be. 2. Does the head have to come off to fix both.

Thanks,

 

Head stays on. Motor needs to be dropped (removed) which is a decent amount of work. They need to pull off the belt, pullies and tesioner to get the oil pump/chain cover off. Need to remove top motor mount, valve cover and all that stuff that's in the way.
It's a job...

 

Certainly if you have to replace the whole chain you are looking at a big job, On sport bike motors it's kinda a pain, and for the most part those motors are very quick to do most servicing on (head swap in 30min!). What makes you think the chain is bad along with the tensioner?

You might want to try just replacing the tesnioner first. Doesn't require removal of any major assemblies (i think) and is only about 60 dollars. That said if the chain is making as much noise as you seem to describe I would not run the car at all lest you risk snapping it and destroying a motor.

 

The motor can stay in place, the valve cover comes off, the crankshaft and idler pulley come off, and the belt tensioner is removed. The passenger side wheel and wheel well need to be removed to gain access. In my opinion 5hrs is a reasonable quote.

 

when it was at the shop yesterday the motor was still running but the mechanic told me the sound was coming from the timing chain area. I'm hoping since the engine was running it's only the tensioner. He drove it from Minnesota to Colorado without a hitch and when he restarted it after he got there it started the noise. Thank God it didn't do this in the middle of Nebraska...

 

Sounds like it's just the tensioner. I would order the plunger and replace that before doing the entire timing chain. It's a fairly simple job. Just one plug on the block and it comes out.

#6
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...95&hg=11&fg=25

 

I'm going to call the place that has the car first thing in morning and tell them to do that first before stating to drop the engine.

Thanks guy's, you always have come through when anyone on this board asks for help..

 

Just received a phone call from the mechanic, they are going to replace the tensioner first to see if that's the problem.. They did quote me $225. to do this though. If I had the car here I'd do it and save the money.

 

That seems a bit excessive but what can you do!

 

Yes please let me know if it is the tensioner. I just replaced my camshaft yesterday and I have the same knocking noise. Everything runs fine but it makes that knocking noise. Needless to say I did not replace the tensioner when I swapped cams.

 

Yeah, I'm looking at my haynes manual and it looks like a 30 minute job at most. But like you said, what can I do...I will tell you when they called me and let me hear it over the phone it sounds like all hell breaking loose with the chain slapping all over the place.

 

Yeah I just ordered the tensioner and hope to get it tomorrow but probably wont get it till wednesday. I hope this solves my problem.

 

Well lucky me, it was the tensioner. Set me back $250. to replace but at least the car run's fine.