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I have a 66 plate Astra, the older, K model, 1.6 diesel that's making a rattle, 130k on the clock. My Google Fu suggests this is a common problem - there are stupidities with the design that A - causes tensioner issues (even though the cam chain is alledgedly "for life"), and B - makes cam chain replacement stupidly difficult because it's gearbox-out to replace it. The quotes I've had are around the £1300 to £1500 mark, but one garage I called said it may just be a matter of fitting a new tensioner and chain guides. Anyone know if that's feasible, or just a waste of £300 'cause the cam chain's gonna go "ping!" at some point in the next six months, killing the whole car? I must confess, I like £300 a lot more than £1500...
I think if I’d paid someone the labour to have the gearbox out I’d just pay to have the chain, tensioner and guides replaced. Where have you got the £300 from? I’d assume it’s a fair bit more than that to drop the gearbox and replace the guides and tensioner only.
A 66 plate Astra likely still has too much life left in it to risk allowing the chain to fail imo
Yeah, it's a good old barge, don't want to write her off just yet! 🙂 The £300 was from one of the garages I called - my presumption is, for that money, they're not dropping the 'box to do it.
If you're dropping the gearbox I'd also factor in a replacement clutch
Noted, ta - still feels solid, but if it IS a box-out job, may as well get that done. 🙂