Cam chain rattle? Advice please.....

[Sea Lion]

1995 R1100GS

I'm getting a rattle/clicking noise from the lhs of my engine. Apppears to be higher up rather than from under the cylinder. I think it is a chain because the noise reminds me of a superdream I once had with a worn camchain.

The noise does not appear when the engine is cold, only when it gets hot.

I use 10-40 semi synth car oil.

The noise is not always there, but I've just come back from South France, and with hotter temps and longer running periods it was more prevelant and quite frankly annoying me,

The bike has 21k miles, 3.5k done by me in the last 3 months.

I suspect it is the cam or auxilary chain tensioner, I would hope the mileage is too low for bad wear to set in.

As the tensioners are hydraulic, I could use thicker oil (eg 20-50), but I was hardly crossing the equator and I feel this should not be necessary at the running temps in which I ride.

I have read of revised BMW replacement tensioner on this site, but the last I heard it is no longer available.

If anyone has any advice it would be very much appreciated. Should I leave it, can i fix it etc.

Thanks

 

[boxer]

I don't know how relevant this is to a '95 1100 but it may be of interest.

HERE

 

[Rob Farmer]

The tensioner is a lot easier to get to on the 1100, it's a big nut under the cylinder, just undo it and take it out and wash off the gunge. Why are you using semi synth? is it a cheapo car one (Halfords etc) if it is I try using castrol GP it worked a treat in my 95 1100 and cut down oil usage a huge amount. At the low mileage yours has done you will never bed it in using semi synth (mine stopped burning oil at 25k), Verns 95 has done 160k+ and he swears by GP.