The upper timing chain guide broke on my Altima. It appears to have caused no other damage to the engine.
Two repair shops have estimated 1560 and 1800 dollars to repair the timing chain.
The piece sheared cleanly apparently due to rubbing from the timing chain. This seems to imply that the timing chain may be loose.
If I want to keep the car for a couple of years, do I need to fix this part?
Rob
If it's just the upper guide, take the rest of it off and throw it away. You don't need it. These guides were a known weakness. Nissan's solution was to do away with the upper guides altogether. Check that the tensioner is working if the chain appears too slack. Unless the upper chain is damaged, it probably does not need to be replaced.
The price they are quoting is way too high to just remove a bad upper guide. I assume they want to replace the chain and tensioner as well?
I would at least get an opinion from a Nissan dealer shop before dumping that much cash.
Common problem and nissan did away with these pieces on later models as they aren't needed. There is a service buletin explaining to remove these on earlier cars. I do it whenever I have the valve cover off of one of these. Just remove the guides on the upper chain and if it isn't noisy after that, you're done. There is no reason to replace the chains just because that guide broke.
Thanks!
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