Timing Chain Tensioner Noise, Possible tensioner issue?

I too have recently had the same indications as everyone else that my tensioner is failing.

Will the tensioner break if I continue to drive around with it like it is? The noise I hear is very annoying!!! I will be taking it to get serviced, but I am concerned that it could break on the way to the shop.

I too have this high pitch squealing noise when the engine is in idle even on my 98 toyota sienna ... I've tried to isolate the noise but to no avail, I've tried spraying white lithium grease on the serpentine belt but the noise is still there so it must be the chain tensioner right?

Did the install this afternoon. The job would only have taken me about 15 minutes if I did not document and take pics of the procedure. Make sure you do this on a cool engine.

After running the car for a while with the new tensioner in I noticed the the car is a lot quieter at idle. For the past couple of years I just attributed the noisy valve train of my S to that. I thought I just had a noisy one. It sounded like a diesel at idle sometimes or sounded like the valves were out of adjustment no matter how many times they were checked. Hardtopguy had also done a valve adjustment a couple times and I checked the clearances a month ago and all was good. I still have some valvetrain noise, but all S2000's do. I have not driven the car to get it nice and hot and restart it 10 minutes later to see if the really bad noise is gone (cards in bicycle wheel spokes sound) but since the car is so much quieter, the tensioner was probably weak for the past couple of years and just finally started to really fail as of late. To my knowledge, there is no way to test the tensioner installed in the car.

Here is what you will be looking at to replace the TIMING CHAIN AUTO TENSIONER. We will not be compressing the tensioner piston since we are doing a replacement. I will practice with that at a later date.
Tools needed:
T-50 hex
10 mm socket
Ratchet and short extension
Long tip/nose pliers



The tensioner is located under the vtec solenoid/valve on the front passenger side of the head.

A look at the bolts and the maintenance hole. (the larger brass bolt on the bottom left in the photo is not a tensioner bolt) You will see where the tensioner bolts are when you look at the new one.



Now remove the two bolts that hold the tensioner and the maintenance bolt. The maintenance bolt is a T-50 hex and the the others are 10mm. They are not tight.




Now remove the tensioner. It may take some rotation of the tensioner while pulling it out. Very little oil will come out, but there will be a good amount of leakage from the old tensioner since it works by oil pressure. Also, do not point the old tensioner down or the piston will fall out. The tensioner on top is the old one. As you can see, the piston has a lot of travel.


Now insert the new tensioner in the head and bolt it in place. The bolts do not need to be super tight. to helms only calls for 8.7 pound of torque. Make sure the set pin is facing the maintenance hole and the bend on the set pin is facing east so it sort of looks like this l__ If it is facing this way __l it is difficult to remove through the maintenance hole. Grab the set pin and pull it out a little at first then get a better grip on it and pull it all the way out. You will hear a "pop" when the piston extends. Do not drop the set pin within the engine. Who knows what damage that would do.

View of tensioner through maintenance hole.


Removal of set pin.


Looking at the old tensioner I noticed a flaw by one of the o-rings that the new one does not have. This may or may not contribute to a loss of oil pressure within the tensioner but there is no way to check that. If it does let the pressure drop, this could have partially been part of the problem. The tensioner would not have full internal oil pressure letting the chain have some slack making noise against the chain guides, but this is only a theory. The old tensioner is probably just plain old bad.

Nice Job!

Great write-up with photos.

My MY02 has 10,000 miles and at this time I don't have any of the sounds/symptoms of a failing tensioner. Is this something I should do as a preventative maintenance item or will I have time to safely replace it once the symptoms start. Thanks to all who have contributed with helpful info in this thread.

Cool, ordering one soon. Thanks for the writeup!

how much is the tensioner

Can anyone chime in and give a part number for the tensioner? Billman?

I ordered mine yesterday from Jeff @ Hardtopguy.com. It was $103.xx plus shipping. A great price from what I am hearing.

I'll let you guys know how it goes after it is installed.

I wish I would of seen this write up before I took my car in. For $103 it would come out cheaper than my ordeal at the dealer, its costing me $120 to fix the dents that the dealer put on my car when changing the tensioner.

Next time. . .

FYI: thanks to david1, the part number for the part is:
14510-PCX-005

Subscribing for my husband.

Calling to order part today. Thanks for the good info.

Question.........by replacing with a new one and pulling the pin after install, I do not have to worry about running into the problem of retracting the piston? I read what happened to the other guy (NOPI show) and just wanted to clarify. I will DIY this soon, and yes I have a Helm's manual so I'll consult that too.

Thanks all.

-Hockey

Has anyone had the problem reoccur after changing the tensioner one or more times?

If you are replacing with a new tensioner, there is no reason to compress the old one. Just unscrew the bolts, pull it out, and throw it away. The new one comes already retracted and pinned.

I did mine last spring at about 45k on the clock. I'm over 63k now without a peep from the new one.

My second tensioner is starting to make noise. I'll be on my 3rd soon (original plus 2 new)

I have about 3 other customers who will need a third soon like me.

This is a good place for this pic....no need to retract the old tensioner if you're installing a new one, as the new one comes retracted with the disposable holding pin in place.

However, make sure all these pieces come out and are accounted for. By design, it is nearly impossible to loose a piece inside the engine so don't worry

Tensioner housing, and 5 addl. pieces that can come out of it:

I had my tensioner replaced in September, and now its starting to go again. Making worse noise than the first time. Im pretty sure with my luck the idiots at my dealer did something wrong. In order to assure its done right, Im going to do it myself this time.

I'm am currently working on a modified chain tensioner. I should have it ready in about two weeks. This one should last a lifetime, and I'll sell them on a rotation basis. Stay tuned

Billman, keep me posted, Im just about ready to replace mine as well. Im very interested in your brand new design, hopefully it will last longer than the 5 months mine has. This will be my third replacement already.

Honda do you hear this, time to redesign your tensioner.

I recently had a short block replacement by my Honda and now I have this noise.
Should I just let my engine blow and get a real new engine?
My engine was fine before getting the short block replacement, it only drank a litre of oil per 1000kms.

If it blows, they will blame you no matter what.

Fix it now.

The tesioner is on the head, not the block.

They changed a few things in the head as well. Do you think they put the tensioner back on wrong or something with the timing chain? There is a new timing chain in there now. The noise isn't that loud, faint but still noticeable.

I'll get them to hear the noise and will see what happens.
I think i have a little but of play in my steering wheel now too.
so many little things changed after the engine change. doh!!

This post has been edited by FormerH22a4 on Feb 25 2006, 03:00 PM