Legoman
Member
Car VIN = W0L0AHL4875127680
It's winter now when my startup rattle is most noticeable and lasts for the longest on engine startup. After the last oil change with brand new oil+filter, the rattle did indeed go away for a time, but it didn't take all that long to start returning again. Less than a month I reckon. Now, in the height of winter cold it is quite bad and noticeable. The car starts up from stone cold in the morning sounding like a tractor or a diesel for the first 1-2 seconds. There's a very noticeable and agricultural clattering going on under bonnet for a second or two before disappearing again.
I have described it to my mechanic who has said it is what I thought, a stretched timing chain rattling possibly against the inside of its case until the tensioner moves its piston out far enough under oil pressure to take up the excess slack. My question is, what parts are required to service this timing chain noise on startup?
I'm a newbie to these engines and my mechanic is not overly familiar with them either. The engine has only done 69,000km and I see from the service interval information, that timing chain services are only recommended at 120,000km for the first one. Given that I've only just done over half that distance so far, am I missing something obvious that could be causing the rattle rather than something wrong with the timing chain or tensioner? The engine is completely bog factory standard Z22YH. There have been no major repairs since new and the only non-genuine item on it is the oil filter. I do the oil changes myself and use locally procured Ryco oil filters. The oil used is Castrol Magnatec 10W-30. Not my choice but it's the oil that's been used in the engine since new from the dealer, so I decided not to change type when I bought it second hand. I would hate to spend all the money on new timing chain + tensioner components, only to have the rattle at cold start come straight back again if it's completely normal that these engines start with this noise like this or if there's a much simpler cause I don't know about.
Any help from the experts on these engines would be much appreciated before I spend an unnecessarily large amount of money on components I may not need.
Thanks
It's winter now when my startup rattle is most noticeable and lasts for the longest on engine startup. After the last oil change with brand new oil+filter, the rattle did indeed go away for a time, but it didn't take all that long to start returning again. Less than a month I reckon. Now, in the height of winter cold it is quite bad and noticeable. The car starts up from stone cold in the morning sounding like a tractor or a diesel for the first 1-2 seconds. There's a very noticeable and agricultural clattering going on under bonnet for a second or two before disappearing again.
I have described it to my mechanic who has said it is what I thought, a stretched timing chain rattling possibly against the inside of its case until the tensioner moves its piston out far enough under oil pressure to take up the excess slack. My question is, what parts are required to service this timing chain noise on startup?
I'm a newbie to these engines and my mechanic is not overly familiar with them either. The engine has only done 69,000km and I see from the service interval information, that timing chain services are only recommended at 120,000km for the first one. Given that I've only just done over half that distance so far, am I missing something obvious that could be causing the rattle rather than something wrong with the timing chain or tensioner? The engine is completely bog factory standard Z22YH. There have been no major repairs since new and the only non-genuine item on it is the oil filter. I do the oil changes myself and use locally procured Ryco oil filters. The oil used is Castrol Magnatec 10W-30. Not my choice but it's the oil that's been used in the engine since new from the dealer, so I decided not to change type when I bought it second hand. I would hate to spend all the money on new timing chain + tensioner components, only to have the rattle at cold start come straight back again if it's completely normal that these engines start with this noise like this or if there's a much simpler cause I don't know about.
Any help from the experts on these engines would be much appreciated before I spend an unnecessarily large amount of money on components I may not need.
Thanks
