E36 m52 vanos or timing chain rattle, or something else?

[russellc2 9]

Hi all,

Trying to troubleshoot a very loud rattle on my 96 328i and looking for ideas / experiences

Car has done 161,000kms, recent manual conversion (but fairly sure rattle was just as bad with the jatco..)

Idle its pretty quiet. The rattle seems to start just after 1500rpm, sounds awful around 3000rpm and is worse when warmed up.

I'm fairly sure its coming from front top of engine around the vanos or timing chain tensioner area. Power still seems ok down low / mid range and still revs put fine too.

Has anyone had similar issues? Sounds like a fairly common issue just trying to figure what I should look at first.

Cheers, Russell

[jom 98]

A new timing chain tensioner spring and washer cost me $11 from the dealer (!) It's a 5 minute job. Worth trying first.

[BM WORLD 1283]

not the fan rubbing on the shroud is it ????

[russellc2 9]

I've removed the fan over winter (it's mostly a track car - no traffic to deal with) and about to install an electric replacement so no noise there.

Thanks Jo I will pop the valve cover and take a look at the tensioner spring this week.

[jom 98]

You won't need to remove the valve cover. The tensioner is in the side of the front cover - it tensions the long chain from the crank to the cams, it's not the chain between the cams

Buy a new spring and compare lengths. Mine was 5mm shorter than the new one.

[russellc2 9]

Update time - Fitted the new tensioner spring (was also 5mm or more shorter than original) and also did an engine oil flush and new 5W/30 oil just in case it was lifter noise.

Still the same noise as previously so have ordered both the single vanos seal and rattle kit from Beisan systems.

Question though from someone that has done this on an M52 328i. Do you absolutely need to lock the cams in place for this? Or can you just lock the flywheel to TDC on cylinder 1 and go for it?

Could save me a bit of money