<E36>REPLY-Rattling M42 engine at warm idle.

["Ron Browne" <rbrowne@xxxxxxxxx>]

John Burns wrote:

My '93 318iS M42 sometimes has a rattle at idle once warmed
up. I first noticed it during a track day last summer. My
fiance normally drives this car and has mentioned it, today
I drove the car and noticed it again.
It seems to come from the front of the engine, idle speed is
stable. The car has 64K miles and the the only thing I can
think of is the water pump bearing. But I would have thought
that wouldn't be intermittent and would have gone totally
bad since I noticed it last summer. Drive belts seem to be
at correct tension, car has no A/C compressor (you don't
need to make air COLDER in Scotland!).
Any ideas?

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I have this EXACT same noise, and to be honest, have had it for at least a
year, maybe more?  Im still on my original water pump, but did replace all
drive belts sometime last year.   If I recall, I _think_ someone once said
this rattling noise is caused by the timing chanin tensioner, which
allegedly is an easy item to replace for a do-it-yourselfer, although I have
yet to fool with  mine.

Again, Im not positive on this, and hope someone with more precise
experience posts a reply.

Ron Browne
1992 318is 106,000 miles.
Bowie, MD

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