Rawja Posted March 31, 2002 Share Posted March 31, 2002 Just broke 100,000 miles yesterday. Over the past year I have replaced all consumables/maintenance items on the car, including the harmonic balancer. The car runs like a top and I am not unhappy with its performance. I have seen a number of posts regarding replacing the timing chain should I be planning to do this soon? What, if anything else should I look into renewing at this mileage or in the near future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2002 Share Posted March 31, 2002 How much of a gambler are you? When I bought my 89 with 157,000 on it I took the advice on the forum and spent $300 to have the water pump and timing parts replaced. The mechanic that did the work told me that the old chain wasn't in bad shape.<BR>I have no idea how well the previously maintained my car or how much longer the chain would have lasted. I have known people that have 300,000 miles on a 3800 in other cars that have never done anything but normal maintenance. <BR>If you know that the previous owner was good about maintenance, you have a low risk, if you don't know or you suspect the maintenance wasn't good, it's worth $300 for peace of mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted March 31, 2002 Share Posted March 31, 2002 Now the other side of the story....the chain seldom wears out. The chain tension device will wear. Neither of these will leave you stranded. Hal can probably tell us some of the symptoms of a sloppy chain, things like difficult to start and/or poor performance. Start worrying around 200k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 8, 2002 Share Posted April 8, 2002 My car is at 185,000 and is starting to run a little rough. I had the 180,000 service and it helped a little, but did not completely correct the problem. Do you think this could be it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 8, 2002 Share Posted April 8, 2002 my 89 has 214,00 miles on original chain and everything else in/on the engine except coilpacks, which were changed 5-6 years ago.<BR>the car runs smooth and strong. i dont intend to ever replace it at this point. i have had 12 years of very low maintenance costs, just regular fluid changes, no breakdowns. i am not recommending this for anyone, but it is working for me. best car i ever owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Orono Posted April 8, 2002 Share Posted April 8, 2002 My advice is to change the timing chain set, cam magnet and tensioner. Early 3800 engines are known for the tensioner to go bad as early as 80k. I was hearing a rattle sound under acceleration. The tensioner was bad, but the chain had less than the 1" play specified in the maint. manual so I replcaced on the tensioner only. That took care of the rattle.... for about 5k. I just got done replacing the timing chain set. (Boy do I hate doing things twice)<BR>If your chain would snap or jump teeth it could cost alot more than the $300 mentioned earlier. Doing it yourself would be less than $100.<p>[ 04-08-2002: Message edited by: Orono ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2002 Share Posted April 9, 2002 Just had to have my timing chain replaced at 101,000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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