Originally published 12/1/2017
We had this Range Rover come in making engine rattling noises.
We diagnosed two problems with the vehicle. The first problem was the timing chain was having issues and rattling. This is a common problem for many of these Rovers. The timing chain guides will break or the tensioners will go bad allowing too much slack in the chain. This will cause noise and potentially cause the internal destruction of the engine if not repaired.
The second problem was the supercharger. The bushing inside the nose cone goes bad allowing too much free play and no vibration absorption. Other than the noise this will eventually break and stop working altogether. There is also a potential for further costly damage here.
After approval, we repaired these problems and got this Rover working well again. It sounded good and ran even better. When we informed the customer of the vehicle being ready, he told us about another problem.
The third problem was the engine would sometimes make a whine or whistling noise after it has been ran for a while. The cause of this problem was in the PCV system which is built into the valve covers. The passenger side valve cover has 2 diaphragms that operate in the PCV system. Both of these diaphragms were leaking air which caused the excessive vacuum inside the engine to make a whistling/whine noise. This is where we all learned a valuable lesson. The valve cover can only be replaced after the supercharger is removed. We already had the supercharger (and both valve covers) removed to do the timing chain work. There would have been a lot of time and labor saved had we known about this problem earlier.