A warning for M62 V8 owners and advice needed

[peaktorque]

Started my 535i up this afternoon from cold in order to pin point the cause of a misfire that has been present for a couple of days and was confronted by a horrific noise coming from the engine.

Lifted the bonnet in order to establish the cause of the noise (hoping to see a pigeon or something stuck in the fan ) and the sound was coming from the timing chain area of the left bank. The noise was like an egine on it's last legs but yet the car idled fine and no warning messages on the dash.

Due to the seriousness of the sound I removed the left side rocker and chain covers to investigate and found this;






It is part of the deflection rail (the big 'V' shaped chain guide). There are bits of it everywhere behind the chain covers. A bit of 'Googling' on this and it seems that I'm not alone in this happening

The car has only done 160,000, be warned and get them changed at 100,000

Anyway I need to strip the front of the engine down , clear the remains out and change the bd. I don't fancy paying 'stealer' prices for a replacement so any idea where I can get one more reasonably priced? (I will be phoning Quarry motors and Motormec tomorrow if they're open)

Thanks

James.

[Neil.D]

Try http://www.minibmwparts.com/

So is it the timing chain tensioner that failed?

[peaktorque]

Thanks.

Tensioner is o.k, but it is the big 'V' shaped guide that goes between the two banks. The chain isn't loose so parts of the guide must still be intact. The noise was caused by bits of plastic from the guide getting jammed between the chain and engine block.

I'm stripping the rest of the timing chain cover today to, hopefully there will not be any other nasty surprises!