Thread: timing chain rattle?

96 se-r
182,000 miles

I have a rattle that as far as I can tell it starts rattling at idle, from what I have read here it could be the top guide or a stretched chain. I have a leaking vlv cvr gskt so Ill be changing that soon, is there a way to tell if the chain id stretched by the amount of play in the chain?

If it is the chain does anyone know where to find a good price on cams and gears I would like to upgrade while I have everything open.

Replace the chain tensioner while you have things apart and remove the upper guide. The new tensioner will take the slack out. Cam gears will do nothing for you if you have stock cams.

^+1

On my stock DE at around 150k when I did the valve cover gasket I removed the chain guide to eliminate the rattle. When I built my motor I didn't even include the chain guide. No issues from 150-190k when I swapped in my build. Now 24k on the swapped motor, all is well.

Rip that thing out and toss it!

sweet thanks guys

I had a rattle in my ga16 and it sounded like a quiet diesel. when i pulled it apart i noticed the upper tensioner was stuck and the plastic that the chain rests against got destroyed and the chain was grinding on the metal. So id check that asap before it breaks your chain. there was about 170k when this happened

What's strange is that the 98-99 Sentra SE's had the chain guide but IIRC the 98 200sx SE-R's didn't