Hey guys,
After tearing into my Brother-in-law's 2.4 (Grand Am), i discovered that the crank sprocket was broken. I think this happened as a result of the tensioner failing (it has the hydraulic) and has been making weird noises for a while, almost as if the timing chain didn't have tension on it.
Now, I've searched a bit on the site, and many people think the hydraulic tensioner is not very good, and recommend replacing it with the spring loaded one.
Question: Does it just bolt in? Also, on www.advanceautoparts.com they list two tensioners for the car, I believe classified as "early" and "late". Which one is the spring loaded one?
As always, your help is appreciated.
Brian
I would have to say it's the later. I bought a spring loaded one at autozone b/c it was all they carried. It does seem to work better then the stock one. I'm still not sure why the stock one stopped working??? maybe my timing chain streched and it couldn't handle it?? The stock part looked fine to me when I manually inspected it.
Did you replace your chain as well?
I was wondering the same thing. I replaced my timing chain and the set came with a hydraulic one. I ran it maybe 3,000 miles now and it seems to be lose again, by the sound of the noises from the timing cover. I have my car torn apart now ready for the install but haven't gotten around to buying the actual tensioner yet. I am certain that this is the cause of my rough idle and rich fuel consumption. We shall see next week. My thought on why it is doing this, is that maybe the hole that leads to the tension has clogged up and now there is no pressure in it. Or my oil pump is not pumping to specs and is wearing out. I will update after the switch to see if it helped.
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Red 1997 Sunfire GT bonestock
White 2003 Nissan Spec-V I/H/E/P/MMI/GW/SS
