Hi Guys,

A colleague of mine owns a Daimler Super V8 - 1998 4.0L supercharged - 55,000 miles - nice condition, but.....

He was driving it to work this morning and pulling away from a set of lights it started running like a bag of bolts. He limped it at about 10mph for 3 miles until he got to work......

I put my basic code reader on it and it had two Pcodes for misfires. Pulled the coils and plugs - some were swimming in oil, but all were dark black and burned.

He has never heard of the plastic tensioner problem, therefore I think he has them and they have probably failed. He tried to start the car again but it sounds horrible, barely runs, and when it does shut off there is a mechanical creak from the engine a fraction of a second after it's off.

Sound like tensioners buggered?

Thanks for any confirmation/suggestions.

 

Not having heard it, I would guess that he not only has a failed tensioner, but has also damaged the valves and pistons by continuing to drive it. It's probably too late now, but caution him to not attempt to start the engine until the valve covers have been removed for inspection.

 

As RJ237 says, remove the cam covers and inspect the tensioners. If they are ok, run a compression test. If that is ok (130psi, reasonably even), new plugs, clean up coils, new gaskets, test.
Use wide open throttle for compression test; accelerator pedal, do not force throttle blade.

 

Inspecting the physical condition of the upper tensioner is not sufficient.

Even if they are intact, the timing has to be checked in case the sprocket(s) have skipped one or more teeth.

A reasonable check is with both valve covers off, can the flats on all four cams be brought in alignment at the same time. The proper check involves checking that the flats are all aligned when the timing tool is in position at the hole normally occupied by the crank position sensor on the front surface of the bell housing at the bottom.

For a simple check, without aligning, it *may* be sufficient to eyeball the position of the crank in the crank position sensor hole as if the tool were actually in position.

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