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Had a timing chain tensioner let go on a 2015 Ford Escape last Thursday
It was a 3.0 liter engine with about 115,000 miles on it. The customer came in with a loud rattle from the front of the engine, and it got worse when they accelerated. I pulled the valve cover off to check, and sure enough, the plastic guide for the timing chain tensioner had shattered into pieces. It's a known weak spot on those motors. I had to order the whole timing kit, which ran about $350 for the parts. The job took me a full day to tear down, clean out all the plastic bits from the oil pan, and put it back together. It's one of those jobs where if you miss one little fragment, you're doing it all over again next week. Has anyone found a more reliable aftermarket tensioner for these, or is the OEM part still the best bet?
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ray2102mo ago
Question whether it's really that serious though... I've seen those tensioners rattle for way longer than you'd think before they actually let go. Unless the engine was knocking bad or you found metal in the oil, that plastic probably just fell apart and sat in the pan without causing any real damage. Sounds like you did the right thing fixing it, but some guys run those things till they throw a code and it's fine.
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