What does the rattle sound like?

slindborg

Ive been mincing about with cars for ages, but never with a chained one.... SOOOOO can someone describe/post a sound clip, the noise the chain makes when its unhappy.

Reason I ask is that last night I pulled into a carpark and heard a faint "dead tappet" kind of noise that increased in pitch a little but went away... it only seemed to make the noise between 1500 and 2500rpm. This has now made me very very paranoid.

Is the rattle noise only really noticeable at startup? Does it start faint and get louder? and so on.

Ive got an X reg vx220 so im 99% sure the engine number is low enough to be in the recall but vauxhall havent got it on their list for the chassis number so they dont care.... cnuts.

vocky

from what I've read, the noise is only on cold start up, lasts for about 5 seconds or so

I'm sure someone will post their experience of the dreaded rattle dunno..

slindborg

intresting..... wonder what my noise way then.

Ill fire up another thread about a noise that all vx220's seem to have on overun

vocky

trouble with the vx220 is you hear every little noise the engine makes dunno..

I have very little experience of vx220 noises, as mines been in pieces ever since I bought it :lol:

slindborg

I know, ive had to tune out most noises, but you can tell bad ones lol.

slindborg

right, Spoke to a guy at Roush who really knows his timing chains (sad git lol), and the basic assumption is that the chain has become so slack that the tensioner is pushing at the palstic guide so far/hard that the chain is doubling back on itself at the top and its resonating at certain revs. Its not a huge problem as yet as the engine dosent sound like its eating itself at idle but its wise to replace the lot.

Have the cam/bottom end sprockets been known to wear when the first chain loses intrest?

vocky

my advice is 'if in doubt, replace the camshaft timing chain kit complete' asap

I've read too many horror stories about the chains snapping, usually it's 'I know it's rattling, but it's getting done next week', then it snaps the next day :cry:

slindborg

Indded. the car is now sat on the crive and the GF can get a cab to the station all week till i change the kit on saturday.
Autovaux have quoted
Timing Chain Repair Kit 1 12577385 56 36 400 £78 + vat
Gasket, Cover, Oil Pump 1 90537915 06 46 295 £3.74 + vat
Gasket, Cylinder Head Cover 1 90537319 06 07 494 £13.20 + vat
Gasket, Oil Pump to Cylinder Block 1 24435052 06 46 902 £6.75 + vat
Seal, Ring, Crankshaft Front 1 90571925 06 38 199 £4.69 + vat
Screw, Hex. HD., Damper to Crankshaft 1 90537363 06 14 927 £2.40 + vat

seems "reasonable" to me... unless there is a cheaper source of parts?

vocky

that's much cheaper than the stealers 🙂

don't forget an oil filter and oil cheers..

slindborg

I dont want to drain my oil , its shiney and expensive lol......

vocky

just stick a new filter in, only £6 😃

reeferman

Not so much a noise but the whole engine started to vibrate on tickover for 2 days, I thought it was an engine mounting and then the chain broke :cry:

at0m

slindborg - replacing the timing chain fixed the rattle ?

vocky

I believe it did 🙂

at0m

Thanks Vocky. Can't wait to get my car out of the shop and see if that sound is still there.

The sound was apearing from time to time and only on IDLE and maybe a few revs higher, after some driving around the town. Sometimes it went away if i tuned off the engine and then tuned it back on. Not all the time though. The sound can be best described as a loose chain rattle OR (exagerating a bit) like an old car with 3 cylinders.

Also very important, for me at least, the clutch pedal was funny when the engine started to sound strange. I could feel the vibration of the sound in the clutch pedal.

There was no loss of power or anything everything was smooth while driving.

Car runned just fine but as you can imagine i didn't quite hammer it. 🙂

Basically it's the reason why i bought a new timing kit.

Anyway, these are the sypmtoms. I'll keep this updated once the car is out of the shop.

Cheers & thanks once again 🙂

vocky

a duff chain tensioner makes a similar noise to that, sounds like a diesel engine dunno..

SriSte

Mine started to rattle today, sounded like loud sortof loose chain slapping against plastic sound, almost diesely.
It did it twice, comming home from the supermatket then going to work, just a few seconds of noice on startup.

Parked up and awaiting parts now i dont fancy cranking it over to check double check lol.

at0m

From what i've read on these forums, your chain won't last for long. I would recommend that you tow it to the garage.

I'm getting mine out of the garage today.

Good luck Sri!

vocky

as above, don't start it until the chain kit is fitted :cry:

I still cannot accept GM has buried it's head in the sand over this, surely they could advise owners to replace the chain, but no, they deny it is even an issue :evil:

SriSte

Cheers, its 2000 x reg dont have any real evidence the chain setup was updated,
just an old network q certificate that came with it, dated 2003 iirc saying all recalls met etc, but then chain was never offically a recall was it?