Hello-
My 22re has been making a rattling or clicking noise for some time now. I have looked all around the engine. It sure seems to be coming from the timing chain cover. I stopped by a local mechanic and he too believed it was the timing chain. Now I'm pretty sure it is the timing chain, but I want to know for sure. I will be doing the fix myself and before I spend a couple hundred bucks and a couple days of work I would like to be sure it actually is the chain. Is there a trick to finding out (other than taking the cover off and looking)?
THANKS TO ALL!!

 

for me the "FOR SURE METHOD" was to wait untill it ate through the cover and dumped the coolant into the oil.

Get it fixed. It is a real mess if you wait. especially if you keep adding coolant until the level gets high enough that the mixture gets pumped through the entire engine. Don't ask me how I know : )

 

I would remove the cover to make sure, it doesn`t take that long. Open it up and check if your chain guides are broken. If they don`t seem broken then while your in there you can check your valve clearance.

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I agree with Aesten. It's really easy to remove the valve cover. Just shine a light down the front and look at the plastic guides, especially the one on the drivers side. Both of mine were pretty much disintegrated and it was starting to wear into the timing cover. Luckily the cover only wore a little so I was able to reuse it.

 

Last time mine made that sound it was the timing chain beginning to eat the cover. But, removing the valve cover...that's something I didn't realize. Thanks!

 

Great, thanks! I'll pull the cover some time this weekend and take a look.

 

This is a great thread, Iam getting ticking sounds out of the valve cover also, so I had the valves checked by someone, but the ticking CONTINUES, so I think its the chain. I'll take the cover off and check the chain guides.

 

I'm in a similar position. I had a coolant leak and thought it was the water pump (which was leaking from the weep holes). I replaced that and I still have a coolant leak and it's in the oil. I found some chocolate milk under the oil cap and it's noticeable on the dipstick too. I did an oil change and it came right back right away. (I was only idling it in the driveway.)
The previous owner said that he did the timing chain recently, but I'm wondering if he didn't bother checking the cover to see if the chain wore through. I checked all the spark plugs and none of them are "clean".
I'm going to pull the valve cover off and check the timing chain, guides and cover. I'm really hoping it's not my head gasket.