By
Bull6791, April 7, 2015
TIMING CHAIN INSPECTION QUESTIONS:
Who should do inspection dealer or your own mechanic.
I know you are looking for chain stretch. What are actual numbers for too much chain stretch.
What are actual numbers that would say the chain is in good shape.
When should you have chain inspected 200-250 k miles.
Any thing else you are looking for when inspecting timing chain.
Thanks
There is no set inspection on the chain - just an audible check. To check for chain stretch - you have to REMOVE the timing chain to properly measure it. As long as you stay on-top of the maintenance, regular oil changes - should not be an issue. Something else will give out before the chain will.
Fish
What are the measurements for a good chain and measurements for stretched chain.
Who should do inspection dealer or your own mechanic.
You have to measure between a certain number of links on several points on the chain. If the elongation of the chain is more than 122.6mm over 16 links, then the chain is bad.
Like I said, there really is no set inspection interval - any competent mechanic or dealership will be able to do this work. Most will do an audible check only, if there is excessive timing chain noise - you'll likely have other issues to worry about.
Still some owners like to check on these things - ones that I know that have checked on the chain haven't run into any chain elongation issues - some had more than 400K miles on their 1ZZ-FE engines! Then again, some people had their chains blow out at less than 30K miles.
I chalk this up to one of those things that only need to check if the engine seemed to have lost timing - or you experience a lot of chain noise. You'll know it if that is the case - as the engine will run very poorly, sound like you poured in a handful of BBs in the engine.