Occasional Rattle and cold start problems

[stevearcher]

I've got a rattle that occurs sometimes and I'n kinda hoping its not what I think it is!

Every now and then, the car will start with a bit of a rattle on idle (barely noticable though) but when I start driving, it gets quite noisy over 2000rpm. When I first had this, I carried on driving and eventually, it sorted itself out.
Now when it happens, I drive gently until I get to somewhere I can stop and switch the engine off and back on again. Normally, it will then run really smoothly.
When it happens, its quite a tappety sound.

Is this the dreaded timing chains or could it be something else?

The mileage isn't quite up to 70k yet so I was hoping it would last a bit longer before the chains needed attention.

One other thing I've noticed since the cold weather started is that sometimes when starting from cold (as in left overnight on the drive), it will not hold its usual idle at aroud 1200rpm. Instead it will drop right down to 500-700 rpm and be very lumpy, on the verge of cutting out. Sometimes it will give itself a rev and then run fine, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't sort itself out, I switch it off and on and that fixes it.
Any ideas on that one?

Thanks
Steve

 

[OZexplore]

it certainly sound like it sorry to say

idle= try cleaning the IAC its under the plastic cover on top of engine

 

[Howard]

Have you had the OOM12 kit fitted? You can tell if you have the revised timing chain tensioner because it has a 1.5 inch extension and not flat as the original.

 

[stevearcher]

I'll have to check for that but I doubt its been done.
Just phoned my Ford dealer for prices. I got the part numbers from a thread elsewhere on this forum and quoted them. They hadn't got a clue about what the parts were or what they were for but said the total cost of parts was £50 incl VAT.
Then spoke to the service dept and they didn't have a clue either. After a few minutes of investigating what I was going on about, they quoted £276.75 incl VAT for the labour.
I think I might print off an explanation of how to fit the OOM12 kit and take it to a couple of local garages to get quotes.

Wondering what will go wrong with it next now!
It's already cost me nearly £1,300 in 7 months for mechanical fixes (brakes, tyres, battery, fanbelt, fuel leak, tensioner, alternator etc). Not sure whether to hope that this fix will be the last thing for a while or give up now!

 

[stevearcher]

Has anyone got a link to a decent picture of where I'm looking for the tensioner (or can you post one)? I found a couple of pictures but am struggling to relate where they are when looking at my engine. I assume I need to remove some stuff to see the tensioner.

Having now done more searches on the OOM12 kit and problems it fixes, the description of the idle when cold is exactly the same as mine.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Howard]

I don't have any pics other than those in the fitting thread http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=487634&postcount=33 You can actually see the tensioner without removing anything if you look from the front under the cover you can just see the nut for it.

I will be fitting a kit soon so will take some then.