Avensis vvti 1.6 - sounds like camchain rattle

rustynutz

The missus just bought a 1.6 01 Avensis,it has what looks to be 82k miles on the clock.It seems a tight car the only problem being that there is a rattley noise coming from the engine.The noise is not there when the car is cold and is most prominent when the car is ticking over,when the engine is revved it disappears.Bought it to a local mechanic,he said the noise sounded like it was coming from the top left of the engine(as you face the car) and he thought it sounded like a loose camchain but couldn't be sure.So before I shell out big money on changing the camchain (€450+) has anyone had similar problems? The reason I'm doubting it's the camchain(as is my mechanic) is because a friend works in a Toyota garage has never heard of a camchain go in these engines.Anyone any ideas?

Seperate

My old man has a 1.8 vvti and the cam chain slipped a couple of teeth. Symptoms similar to what you have described.

It caused internal damage to the engine and cost close to €2k to fix. Only had about 65-70k miles on it at the time too.

PADRAIC.M

yeah I have changed chains in the avensis usually the car is either burning oil or lack of servicing, also intake manifold could be noisey. They can tend to make a loud vibration sound, now the i think of it get the tensioner for the aux belt checked as have changed them also

colm_mcm

could be a water pump.

rustynutz

PADRAIC.M wrote: »

yeah I have changed chains in the avensis usually the car is either burning oil or lack of servicing, also intake manifold could be noisey. They can tend to make a loud vibration sound, now the i think of it get the tensioner for the aux belt checked as have changed them also

Doesn't look good so,mechanic took off the fan belt and the noise was still there so that rules out the aux(I'm assuming that's a different word for fan belt) belt tensioner or waterpump,he ruled out the intake manifold too,is it a big job to change the chain?

rustynutz

rustynutz wrote: »

Doesn't look good so,mechanic took off the fan belt and the noise was still there so that rules out the aux(I'm assuming that's a different word for fan belt) belt tensioner or waterpump,he ruled out the intake manifold too,is it a big job to change the chain?

Forgot to ask,would it be foolish to drive it as is and see if the sound gets worse,like I said it's not very loud at the moment and only at lower revs?Is it likely to snap without getting worse?

kyote00

I think there is a known problem with rattle from the inlet manifold.

Two local cars had this problem - one was a 2001 (1.6l)

CJhaughey

The Intake manifold is plastic and has an inner and an outer skin to reduce noise.
This is a known problem on VVTi engines, also they can lose oil pressure and this can make the camchain rattle. Have you kept an eye on the Oil level? some early VVTi engines had problems with excessive oil consumption and burn oil at a ferocious rate 1l per 1000km may be worth keeping an eye on as well.

rustynutz

CJhaughey wrote: »

The Intake manifold is plastic and has an inner and an outer skin to reduce noise.
This is a known problem on VVTi engines, also they can lose oil pressure and this can make the camchain rattle. Have you kept an eye on the Oil level? some early VVTi engines had problems with excessive oil consumption and burn oil at a ferocious rate 1l per 1000km may be worth keeping an eye on as well.

I'm going to drive it for a while and see what the oil consumption is like,no point forking out for new chain if it's drinking oil

CJhaughey

rustynutz wrote: »

I'm going to drive it for a while and see what the oil consumption is like,no point forking out for new chain if it's drinking oil

The oil consumption is not that big a deal, Most should have been replaced under warranty but if it is using oil you could try a slightly heavier oil to slow the usage down.
Not all engines had the problem.