i30 Owners Club
THE GARAGE (SERVICE, MAINTENANCE & REPAIR) => DIESEL => Topic started by: Robin Hood on May 08, 2021, 15:46:05
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HI. Just looking to learn what experience people have in terms of timing chain adjustment/replacement and whether the water pump is a consideration at the same time. My i30 has just hit 5 years old and 59,000 miles. I'm probably looking to keep the car some time due to the £0 road tax (what was the government thinking?!) and also my annual mileage has reduced drastically due to mostly working from home. I have noticed a rattle on idle but it disappears as soon as I touch the accelerator. Could this be the timing chain becoming slack?
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All I can say is that my partners 2011 car which has the same engine is still going strong after 215,000 miles, I change the oil & filter every 10,000 miles and only ever use a good quality synthetic oil, Shell Helix Professional AG. As long as you use the correct oil the timing chain should last the lifetime of the engine, unless the tensioner develops a fault. I don't think there's any adjustment possible, if the chain stretches excessively due to wear then the crankshaft and camshaft sprockets may also have worn out.
There are 2 chains in the engine, one that drives the high pressure injection pump from the crankshaft, and another that drives the camshafts from the injection pump sprocket. Each chain has it's own tensioner. It's looks to me like it would be an engine out job to replace the chains, so it would be worth getting the opinion of a trusty mechanic to figure out what the rattle might be.
The car still has the original water pump but I think that's driven off the auxiliary drive belt, not the timing chain, so it can be replaced without having to disturb the timing chain.
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Many Thanks Brendan. 215k miles is seriously impressive!