Member Since: 17 Dec 2011
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 51
Tensioner on cam chain snapped off
Anybody else had this ? My 55plate D3 has been at the local indies for a month now with body off and engine in bits , The tensioner just broke it's mounting and went bang , we were in two minds as to fit a recon engine at around 2.5k plus labour but decided to have a go repairing as the labour would have been roughly the same and thought 2.5k buys a lot of parts so worth a try . Regretting that decision now as the parts bill is nearly knocking on the door of £1700 already and they have yet to source a 2nd hand cam shaft for the valves ! Looking like the bill will be near enough £4k and I doubt despite being an hse that with 160k on the clock that it is worth much more than that !
On the bright side it's had all the other major things done already like lower arms, bushes , torque convertor recon , handbrake rebuild so better spend £4k fixing the devil I know than buying someone else's problems . Besides having used this as a farm truck for the past 7 years I couldn't face going back to a leaf or coil sprung alternative so I would only have bought another disco .
Daft thing is , on the day it went bang I had just 2 days earlier changed the family car even though the outgoing car only had 30k on the clock , should of saved my money for a new farm disco me thinks !
1st Dec 2017 10:27 pm
BrettKaz
Member Since: 11 Nov 2013
Location: Canberra
Posts: 209
Known issue with cam belt (not chain) so suggest that's the case. The Indy should have replaced the tensioner (edit: oil pump not tensioner) (with a stronger one) with the belts when they were changed.
Last edited by BrettKaz on 3rd Dec 2017 12:44 pm. Edited 1 time in total
2nd Dec 2017 3:14 am
M3DPO
Member Since: 22 Sep 2010
Location: Notts.
Posts: 8084
Very unusual for the chain tensioner to fail, SIL had a new engine fitted FOC by LR after cam chain broke on a 2.7 RRS at around 60k miles. Just bad luck but you've done a fair number of miles and will do the same again when you've got it sorted, a later model could lose that value in a few months by age alone.It can when others can't,
It will when others won't,
It goes where others don't.
2nd Dec 2017 5:27 am
Chips1973
Member Since: 17 Dec 2011
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 51
BrettKaz wrote:
Known issue with cam belt (not chain) so suggest that's the case. The Indy should have replaced the tensioner (with a stronger one) with the belts when they were changed.
Yes that is exactly what they said happened to mine , the casting that the tensioner mounts to broke . I must of got confused and thought he said chain not belt . There must be chain to the valve cam shaft as he showed me the cog that has rotated on the shaft and perhaps that's where I misheard
Oh well hopefully be back in time for Christmas !
2nd Dec 2017 10:27 am
Pete K
Member Since: 15 Jan 2016
Location: GL
Posts: 10362
its not unknown for these top chains in the head to fail.
2 cases on here I know of.
and I know of 1 Jag petrol that is currently in bits due to this.
2nd Dec 2017 11:07 am
hugeviking
Member Since: 08 Jun 2010
Location: cotswolds
Posts: 1482
Happened to me 170,000 ish miles
Had a sprocket spin on camshaft and also a lobe rotated on the camshaft so get them checked.
Andi.
2nd Dec 2017 3:23 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20727
Only seen 1 in the metal, heard of a few others. Not common but does happenMy D3 Build Thread
Member Since: 17 Sep 2016
Location: Peterborough
Posts: 99
It's the oil pump housing that fails. the early ones had very poor webbing supporting the cam belt tensioner mounting boss. This boss gets a hairline crack and eventually shears off with the tensioner attached. I bought the later oil pump when I did my belt to find it had already had the stronger pump so I have a spare oil pump.iiD Bluetooth Diagnostic Tool
Cambs GLASS Rep
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1972 Diesel 88 No top half body "rat landy"
1988 110 V8 Defender
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1997 Camel Trophy 110 Support Vehicle P232KAC
2001 Freelander GS V6
3rd Dec 2017 10:43 am
James1974
Member Since: 23 Nov 2017
Location: Stevenage
Posts: 990
Just done the belt on mine as just brought the car and no where could I find in the service history that it had been done and there is tons of history so been parked up for a week as was never gonna chance it and done the belt today luckerly the oil pump is a newer one being my car is a 58 plate 2009 thanks god and was the easiest belt I ever done so much Room in to do it but the old one did look very worn out tbh
3rd Dec 2017 3:11 pm
Chips1973
Member Since: 17 Dec 2011
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 51
Was in our local town getting farm supplies today in our litte peugot tepee Wheel chair access car which has had to stand in for the farm truck this last month , when on getting back in to leave I spotted a nice black Disco 3 pull up down the street and felt rather envious of the driver getting out , I wondered how old it was and saw it was a 55 plate like mine........then I realised it was mine ! They had just got it back together ,as it was in a million bits with the body in the sky 3 days earlier when I called in and were taking it for a road test before doing an MOT . They rung later and MOT passed so can collect in the morning , ye ha I can't wait after enduring the tee pee with no heater for a month ! I have even after reading on here for the first time in a long time ordered a D4 cup holder for it , no more spilt coffee for me .
Actually seeing as my wife managed to reverse our new to us RRS into a tree two weeks agowithin a week of getting it, maybe I should tell her that the disco is now hers and I will have the rrs for the farm
7th Dec 2017 9:34 pm
Pete K
Member Since: 15 Jan 2016
Location: GL
Posts: 10362
Pleased for you.
7th Dec 2017 9:40 pm
Chips1973
Member Since: 17 Dec 2011
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 51
Thanks Pete , don't know how pleased I'll be though when I see the bill
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170,000 ish miles
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