I recently changed the timing gear on my VR because it suddenly got noisy, my car has about 83k on the clock and is a 98 model so it has the later type pad and guides. The problem with mine as it turned out was not the guides or the pads as the all but one (upper guide rail the one the tensioner pushes against) showed no sign of ware and the upper guide rail only had about 3mm worth of scoring remember this is after 83K so could have easily lasted twice as long. What was causing the noise was a binding tensioner and worn sprockets! Yes the sprockets actually had worn down and on one there w