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Oil Filter Opened for Signs of Cam-Chain Tensioner Wear Forums > > Oil Filter Opened for Signs of Cam-Chain Tensioner Wear Oil Filter Opened for Signs of Cam-Chain Tensioner Wear
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Old 07-10-2009, 11:41 AM
Altima SSS Altima SSS is offline
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2004 Altima
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
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Default Oil Filter Opened for Signs of Cam-Chain Tensioner Wear

People who cut open their oil filters after an oil change might find this interesting.

I'm concerned about the issue were the cam-chains on the 3.5L eat through the secondary cam-chain tensioners and hit the metal plunger on the tensioner causing the cam-chain whine issue. There's TSB about his.

So, I'm thinking ... if those tensioners are made out of some kind of white plastic material (as seen in various photos showing them all chewed down), one would think that particles from the chain sawing into them would be caught in the oil filter.

My car is a 2004 Altima with the 3.5L V6 and only has 22,000 miles on it at this time. I bought it used with 18,000 miles. So the oil was ran for 4,000 miles. Upon cutting open the filter (with a special cutting tool so no debris is created), I carefully inspected inside all the filter element pleats for any kind of particles. I did NOT see one particle that might be caused by the cam-chain tensioners getting chewed down. I did however see a few very small flakes of what looked like yellow paint ... probably from paint marks put on parts inside the engine during assembly at the factory.

So ... my thought is if the cam-chains are chewing and wearing down the tensioners, you would at lease see some hint of particles getting trapped in the oil filter after thousands of miles. Most good filters will trap particles down to 20 microns ... and I would think any tensioner particles would be at least if not bigger than that.

Thoughts?

Has anyone cut open a filter on an engine that is known to be chewing down the tensioners, or is already making the cam-chain whining noises? If so, what did you see?

Last edited by Altima SSS; 07-10-2009 at 11:45 AM.
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