How long does it take for a timing chain to go bad? Is there anyway to check it?

 

How many miles is your car? Timing chains are generally hard to snap, but stretch on high mileage chains is not uncommon. Pull your distributor cap and try to turn the rotor...it should not move very much. The, if you can, have somebody (or if youre extremely skilled), turn the crank pulley with a breaker bar, etc. as you watch the rotor. The rotor should start to move almost immediately. If not, the difference is chain slack.

I usually recommend replacing them over 100k.

 

Replace mine every 60k-75k miles....

 

Mine snapped at 112k.

 

Arg... need to replace mine soon then, because mine has 112k! Was planning to do it this summer, don't fail me now chain, just 4 more weeks of school!

 

Mine just passed 100K so i guess ill try your test and see what i can see.

 

Mine's at 120k, hasn't snapped yet, never heard of too many breaking. Timing chains often outlast the rest of the motor. My first car was an '80 Chevy Caprice, 3.8 V6 that was passed around the family, had 227k miles when I got rid of it, never touched the timing chain. Certainly stretching is very possible tho, might be part of the reason why my car is running poorly.

Now belts OTOH that most imports use are at risk of breaking over 60k miles.

 

Mine had almost 200k (as far as I know it was stock) and was looser then a french ***** . So loose that it started snapping the plastic off the guide and hitting the TC cover. It still ran, but was soooooo much better afterwards.

I belive gm recommends 60-75 on them.

 

Honestly, I think mine broke because some water somehow slipped past the front engine cover seal, and froze on the chain itself, causing it to expand and break when I cranked it over the next morning.

This is just a theory, though.

So you may have nothing to worry about.

 

I was planning on replacing it soon anyways! Just haven't had the time (school) and since its a daily driver, I need it to get around. This summer will be good though, because I might be able to drive around the T/A for the 2 days that I'll work on the chain.

 

What did or didn't your car do when it snapped? How did you know it was the timing chain?

KZad

 

thats a pretty good methid of testing

 

I changed my stock one out at 167,000 miles. I've been on the Cloyes True Dual Roller chain ($90) since then, and now I've got 272,000 miles on the car. Rock on!

 

You guys are resurrecting a dead post!