hey everyone. ive finally registered after a couple years of hiding in the background to ask a question. Ive looked all over the internet and tried searching it here but havent found a definite answer.

History on the car: Bought it used 3 years ago with 67,000 miles. It now has 86,000 miles. I've kept up with routine maint. and all. I gave it to my g/f to drive, so never really noticed if anything was changing with the car mechanically. (She doesn't keep a look out for minute changes). ok on to the story.

My R53 has what i am assuming a little bit of a noise coming from the timing chain. It isnt super horrible like some of the diesel truck sounds ive heard coming from other folks r53's failed guides or tensioners, but just enough to question if this sound is normal. So i changed out the tensioner but the noise was still there.

Next I figured that if the tensioner isnt the culprit then quite possibly the guides may have broke. So i pulled off the oil pan. Nothing in there. Pan was clean, oil had no particulates in it, all looked healthy.


So my question is... Am I over-reacting? Is there a normal noise for the timing chain? Can a healthy chain still be heard? If not, is there a way to replace or pull the timing chain guides individually to replace/inspect without removing the timing case cover? Is it possible to pull the guides out up top from the valve cover?

Cheers,

Jon

 

Yes the guides come out from the top. But you will need to pull the cam gear to do it. And you will want to use the cam tool