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Another timing chain tensioner thread(asking for real world experience)


InterceptorPR

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I own a 2005 VFR800.  I've had it since January 2014.  When I purchased it it had about 40K miles.  Since then I have put about 30K miles.  I always changed the oil around 3k miles(defitnely at least once a year, my mileage varies).  Since I've owned it has exhibited the familiar clacking sounds of a failing timing chain tensioner(the front one).  It comes and goes, but is almost always present on cold starts.  I have changed oil brands and viscosities and it has negligible effects on the noise.  The noise almost always goes completely away when the bike warms up.  Some rare times it will make noise even when fully warm, but a blip or two of the throttle silences it.  This bike has been through a lot, it has been dropped abunch, ridden hard alot and generally is worth nothing to anybody but me.  I do take care of it as best as I can.  I initially was resigned to replacing the timing chain tensioner a while back, but since the noise comes and goes I was holding out for it to get worse or not go away at all.  I have researched and have not found any evidence of catastrophic cam chain failures on the VFR800 vtec.  I am reaching out to anybody here to find out if there is any hard evidence to long term damage caused by a worn out cam tensioner.  My bike runs amazing(just some noise), pulls hard, gets 35+ mpg and has been super reliable in all the time I've owned her.  I guess me continuing to ride my bike like this is kind of an experiment.  If I am 100% wrong by not replacing the tensioner help me out.  Show me the proof it'll kill my engine.  I haven't seen it.  Most replace the tensioner to alleviate the noise.  In many instances the noise comes back.  I'm very capable of replacing the tensioner myself, I just am doing this as a test.  

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A friend and I replaced one of my 6th gen's CCTs several years ago.  But before that it had been clacking for literally thousands of miles.  There was no evidence of any long-term damage, and the fact my bike eventually topped 100,000 miles must mean something.  I'm glad we replaced it though.  I think if you can do the work yourself it's worth doing.  I was fortunate to have a friend, a far better mechanic than me, help me with mine.  Actually, he did more of the work and I helped a little bit!

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Also, I owned an 04 VFR 800 for 2 years, put about 15k miles on it and it also had a noisy cam tensioner.  I never replaced the tensioner on that one either.  The bike was smoother and quieter overall but it wasn't beat up like my 05 and it only had 20K miles when I purchased it.  

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