Received the car last night. Friend of mine brought up a Great Point! Where did the metal shavings go from the sprockets being worn down? They have to be sitting in the oil pan and circulating through out the engine when running. I asked the dealership if they drooped the oil pan to clean it out. They said the motor would have to be pulled to get the oil pan off. "I didn't know this"
They are right, the engine does need to be pulled to pull the oil pan. it's a pain but no way around it. Maybe not pulled all the way out, but enough that you can't just "raise it a little" and get to it. I want to preface the rest of this post by saying I'm not sure how much automotive knowledge you have so I'm writing this as though you have none so that way regardless of your actual knowledge level I don't miss anything...you know, never ASSuME. LOL
Now, about that question about the shavings...we'll get to that in a moment.
So, I get in the car right at 5:30 last night, and the shops closing time. I start the car and it has a weird vibration I had never felt from this car before. The motor wasn't idling anything like it did before. I let it warm up as always and it seemed to calm down. I take off down the road and it seems to run fine. I was mainly keeping my eye on the temperature of course and after reaching 190 it leveled and and stayed there. Then I start testing the performance and anything over 4000 rpms didn't feel right and I had a code come up on the display. I took a picture of the code and sent it to JohnWR a Moderator here "Great Guy" He said it was general Malfunction Indicator Light that some call the Service Engine Light that could mean about anything. He also said if this light is ever blinking don't drive it because it's something serious. I took the car home and parked it.
As a general rule, a flashing Check Engine Light (CEL) or Service Engine Light (SEL)...which are the same thing and the two terms are interchangeable so you'll hear it referred to both ways...usually means you have a misfire condition in the engine which IS serious and you SHOULD stop the car. JohnWR is spot on with this (and one of the electrical geniuses we have on the board AND a great guy...). When it comes on and stays on though, there are a few hundred things it could mean. To determine what the problem is, you need a code reader to pull the code then you look the code up on the internet and see what that code means. Usually it will be something like P0300 (which is general engine misfire), P0013 (intake cam solenoid) and P0014 (exhaust cam solenoid) to name a few.
Good news is for about $15 and a smart phone you can do this yourself. You can get a Bluetooth dongle for about $10 off eBay and then download the Torque app for your Android phone (there is a different app for Apple but I can't remember it at the moment). Both apps have a free version which will read codes, display codes, and let you clear codes. The Pro version of the Torque app which will give you enough information to make your head spin is a whopping $5 last I checked.
Here is a link to one of the Bluetooth dongles on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bluetooth-...204375?hash=item56c5695e17:g:qgEAAOSw0kVc7RUI
This is what I use for simple code reading/clearing and running some virtual gauges if I want. For what you're doing, this will be more than enough.
This will let you immediately scan your car and see what codes are being thrown so that you don't have to get it to a dealer or shop to figure out this information since some places do charge to read codes.
Which you may have again shortly...
Drove the car straight to the dealership this morning and told them about the code. They take the the car into a bay and scan it. After like half an hour they tell me it was the Intake Camshaft Solenoid and they replaced it and said the car was good to go. So far So Good! Car is running GREAT and the Temperature of the car is running between 185 - 190 consistently with the temperature here in Bardstown, KY right at 78. Perfect Top Down Weather!!!
Remember wondering where those shavings may have gone? Chances are they wound up in your Camshaft Solenoids. Yes, solenoids plural. You have one on the intake and the exhaust and usually when one goes, the other isn't far behind. So if they changed just the intake, the exhaust may go sometime in the near future. It is not uncommon when you have the kind of wear that you did in the timing chains that the debris winds up in these solenoids and if you look up pictures on these solenoids I'm sure you'll find a few showing what they look like when people remove them and find them packed full of not-so-happy metal shavings.
Good news is even if you're not highly mechanically inclined, these are super easy to replace and fairly cheap. Tools required are a 10mm socket and ratcheting wrench with a short extension (Lefty loosy righty tighty LOL).
If you look at the picture I've attached, you'll see the valve cover of the engine (it's the huge red thing...and this is with the engine cover removed by pulling up on it really hard) and running down the center of it are four coils that drive your spark plugs (the black squares with wires coming out). Just in front of the one on the far right of the head (the engine is sitting with the front of the car to the right and the rear of the car to the left) you'll see two round looking cylinders poking up with wires coming from them. These are the cam solenoids...intake is on the left (driver's side) and exhaust is on the right (passenger side). To change one, you start by pulling up on a little plastic retainer on the plug (they are the gray part of the plugs in the picture) that unlocks the plastic button (which is the black part of the plug that is surrounded by the afore mentioned gray lock) you have to push on while pulling up on the plug to remove the plug from the solenoid. The retainer doesn't come out...well, shouldn't come out...but just pulls up a few millimeters. When the plug has been removed, you will use your 10mm socket to remove the one bolt that holds the solenoid to the valve cover. Once this is out, give a firm tug on the solenoid and it will come out. You may need to work it a bit as there is an o-ring on it to seal it in the valve cover.
Once that is out, insert the new solenoid, seat it in the hole while aligning it's mounting tab for the bolt is aligned with the hole for it in the valve cover, replace the bolt tightening it down to just barely past snug, put the plug back on the new solenoid pushing down until you hear a slight click, then push the retainer in the plug back in place. Done.
I think the solenoids are about $50 each perhaps? Here are the part numbers for both:
Intake camshaft solenoid: 12655420
Exhaust camshaft solenoid: 12655421
I don't know what they charged you for the solenoid but this may save you a few dollars at least and is really no more difficult than changing your spark plugs and easier than changing your oil. Hope this helps and I hope the other solenoid doesn't fail but at least, if it does, you are aware and have some knowledge that may save you a few bucks.