I just took my car to the shop due to the timing chain making noise, they haven't fully diagnosed it, if its just the tensioner or the whole chain and gears. but are working on it. they quoted me about 1400 for the job. Is this reasonable? is it uncommon for it to get worn out at 172,000?

'03 are notorious for the guides and tensioners wearing out. Chain and sprockets should be good and $1400 is way too much.

Note to self......avoid '03's, will be getting another at the auction this year. Alot of '08's at the auction.

^^^ 03's arent the only years that are known for this issue.

170k+ is not uncommon. here is my guides/tensioners at 125k:


1400$ seems steep. May be worth looking into to do on your own. Not as bad as some may lead you to believe. Ive never done anything like it before and it took me 3 hours.

Parts ran me about 250 parts and gaskets motorcraft. I would say a good price would be around the 750-800 range. anything over 1000 seems crazy to me.

I replaced mine at 170k and they were only about 2/3's worn out. Took me a lot longer than three hours, but I was out of practice.

The noise I was chasing turned out to be the bearing on the air conditioning clutch The 03's have a bad reputation for this issue.

I paid 225 at the dealer for timing chain tensioners, tensioning arms and the stationary guides and timing cover gaskets.. I used the BOK and it took me about 4 hours total the stealership quoted me 1,200.00. the chains and cam gears are ok and almost never go bad.. if the shop is telling you the chains are bad find a new shop, The chains last as long as the motor and are rarely and issue.

Does anyone know what the last build date was for this supposed issue? I think someone posted this info in another thread but I can't seem to find it.

vvvvvvvvvvvv

Do you still get the timing belt issue even if it was already done and the valve covers have the X with three dots? (X...)

Does your have these marking on both valve covers?

Do not ignore it, you will be getting a new engine. Their quote is very expensive. The parts can be had for less than 1/4 of that cost and it will take you a day, or a weekend if you go really slow.

Martz,
Is that a rod knock or the bad timing chain guide noise?

If the guides start to wear like some of the pictures above I could very easily see a shop recommend or even insisting on replacing the chains. They are the ones who have to stand behind the work once the car goes out the door. How pissed would you be if you paid a shop $800 on new guides/tensioners and the car blew a chain a month afterwards and blew the engine? Not to happy I would guess.

If the chains start grinding away on the Steel tensioner pistons they should be replaced and one normally replaces the timing gears along with the chains.

Frankly if it gets that bad most engines end up failing due to a plugged up oil pump pickup screen and/or particles blocking up oil passages causing spun bearings and damaged cam bearings etc..

My car just rolled 160k, is this something that I should be looking to replace soon or do I just wait until I HAVE to change them out. Why are the guides/tensioners wearing out like this in the first place.

Civilian tensioner arms at 110k miles:



Fixed a known issue for peace of mind.

I'm by no means a mechanic and survived doing the work myself. New arms, guides and tensioners. Weren't worn enough to warrant replacing chains and gears.