Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I searched and couldn't find my issue.

My 04 Max has recently developed what I can only describe as a clacky idle. The car drives perfectly fine, but the idle "clack" is very loud. One day it wasn't there, the next it was, and it has stayed ever since. I first noticed it when I had the car in reverse with the handbrake on to hold it in place (I was loading something from a warehouse). It sounds like it's coming within the middle of the engine bay, but I haven't pinpointed it yet.

As a child, I thrash this car around pretty often. You know, hard turns, full-throttle acceleration, the works (not constantly, but not rarely).

I've heard that these cars' timing chain guides can wear away due to them being made of cheap plastic, could this be a beginning to that becoming an issue? Any other ideas?

 

Ensure proper oil level. Your guides and/or tensioner may be toast. The tensioner is most often the main culprit as the oil-pressure driven piston that pushes against the tensioner stops pushing on the seat of the tensioner when the delrin guide on the tensioner becomes worn out and dislodged. This failure is most pronounced upon startup as the oil pressure builds from zero to enough to exert force sufficient to apply pressure on the tensioner/what's left of the tensioner that can have force applied.

Could be a lot of things. Get an automobile stethoscope for $4 bucks and poke around. If it's timing components as you suspect, the sound will be loudest on the passenger side of the engine where the timing components live. If the car has a lot of unmaintained, hard miles on it, it may be a junker, economically speaking. Good luck.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply! Just got around to check it and I must have blown an oil seal a month ago or something, there was almost no oil! I put more in and the sound went away, so hopefully, this is the issue. I'm bringing it to the mechanic ASAP and will update.