Camshaft tensioner

[adrian jaye]

ok quick question

The pad on the CT was changed about 6-months ago,
remember reading that also its good proactice to also chane

1> the Oil pipe £65
2> the whole assy £200+

the CT is VERY expensive,, using the s2 as a daily driver

so I understand there is also a bottom pad, what say yall on changing the whole assy and oil pipe

cheers

Ade

[adrian jaye]

from Clarks

On these cars, the exhaust valve camshaft is driven by a camshaft sprocket directly from the timing belt, identical to the 8V cars. However, the exhaust and intake camshafts have a toothed gear located near the center of the shaft. A chain between the exhaust and intake cam allows the exhaust camshaft to drive the intake camshaft. The drive chain tension is maintained by an oil fed tensioner. Over time, the tensioner will eventually wear out. The tensioner itself seems to be fairly reliable until around 130,000 miles. However, many 16V owners have experienced failures related to other tensioner components a just over 100,000 miles. Most of these failures can be attributed to failures of the J-Tube oil supply pipe or to the plastic guide rails on the tensioner."

milage is 117k, I never changed the tube last time. but I think it was ok, I may just change it out as it seems if this fails there is gonna be a problem.

anyone else got any further ideas or experiences ?

[sca037]

Adrian,

My friend is currently dealing with the aftermath of a failed chain tensioner on his '90 S2 Cab. It turns out that his upper pad was worn to the point that it came apart into 3 pieces, and he was very lucky that none of them caused a jam between the chain and the exhaust cam gear! He's going to replace the entire tensioner assembly as his lower pad was pretty worn as well, but neither of us have heard of the J-tube oil supply pipe being problematic.......can anyone shed more light on this subject???

Cheers,
Brian

[krahm]

The problem is that the "might as wells" on these cars could drive you into the poor house. Having said that, there are "might as wells" and "might as wells". When there's a chance that a failure could cause MAJOR damage, then "might as well" looks a lot more attractive. When I did the job, I changed the whole component and the oil tube. Now I don't have to worry about it. The unit could still fail, of course, but I won't be worrying about it when it happens. Ideally, I should have done the chain, too, but since I'm going to rebuild the cylinder head, I can do that now.

By the way, when reattaching the CT, be VERY careful torquing the allen bolts. I stripped the threads in the head using a cheap torque wrench. I've heard of other people doing the same thing.

That's my 2 cents. Cheers.

[gtroth]

I changed the whole assy but not the "pipeline".

I did the whole assy because I wanted to start with a new bottom pad and that's the only way to do that. My tensioner was not working right and wouldn't compress to get it out, so that would have reason enough (of course, I didn't know that going in).

I decided the price for the pipeline was obscene for what it was, so I didn't do that. Once in, I spent a lot of time inspecting it and simply couldn't imagine it failing. It looked pristine. I did use new crush washers for it.

[Flormat]

On my old S I did the top pad and oil pipe. I got the oil pipe for $25. Prices vary on little stuff like this- depends on where you get it. Just got another S and I'm leaning towards the whole assembly.

[adrian jaye]

hi fellas,
well over the weekend I did a mini service, so I did an oil change and flush.

also got the j-tube, bolts, washers, gaskets etc

the pipe was perfect but I changed everything out anyway.

I did a check of stuff while i was in there and all seemed ok,

I dont see how that pipe "now" can perish, I'm sure mine was an orginal one (91) I suppose it could get blocked ?

[Britwrench]

It is a changed design part, the part number is superceeded.