One of these days I wanna change the upper tensioner in my car to see if it fixes my vanos rattle. Does anyone know how to do this or should I take it to a shop. I like doing all my own work but looking at the right ups on this can be a bit dawnting. This is my only car and my daily driver so I cannot screw up. No pressure for me. Anyways I would gladly supply your choice of beer. --------Ben

When I had my cam install done, I had the option to switch both of mine out, but my mechanic said that it does *not* guarantee that the noise will go away. He mentioned that even after putting brand new ones in there, he's seen in other cars that the noise was still present. So I opted against that and kept the existing ones. And the noise coming from VANOS and Timing chain tensioners are two completely different things, and replacing one will not fix the other.

I've been told by a few sources that switching it out will not guarantee reduction in noise.
Mine is getting noisy and annoying but replacement can fix it for a long time....or not even...

But the parts are rather inexpensive
Top tensioner
Valve Cover/spark plug gaskets
vanos gasket
valve cover bolt rubber ring

I wanna replace it. Can anyone help. I have already replaced the lower tensioner and valve cover gasket. If it doesn't fix it. Oh well , I won't lose sleep.