Left cam deviation angle out of spec

My 2000 996 Carrera 2 has a left cam deviation angle of -7.6 degrees and a right cam deviation angle of -2.5 degrees. The engine light is off. The car has about 140,000 miles. Over the years I have seen small dark brown/black non-metal particles in the oil filter, but not many and not recently. The plan is to replace the pads on the left side only. I wonder what caused the pads to wear on one side only and I am concerned about something being wrong in the left side of the chain tensioning system that may cause the replacement pads to wear prematurely. Any comments/recommendations on the above? Thanks

Im 100% sure the pads r bad in both sides. U will get about 3* better when u do. The remander is chain wear that u cant do anything about till u replace during a motor refresh. It is very common in older motors to have a 3-4* difference between sides and its well within tolerances.

^^ He�s right ^^ The pads on these early engines tend to wear out over time. There are 4 pads, two on each side, and there is typically more wear on two out of the four pads when you visually inspect them - mostly because you cannot easily see the wear on the other 2 pads until they are out. I have pictures of the wear on my 5-chain 3.4 engine I can post if you want to see. As you can imagine, it�s not so much the mileage that causes the wear (my engine has 1/2 the mileage of your engine), it�s the startup procedure and the tensioners that are some of the last engine bits to receive oil pressure. The good news is that the new pads are more resilient and made with a better material, so you�ll likely not have to ever do this again. My cam deviation numbers did improve considerably once my pads were replaced.

Quotes source post: 18918419

If it is not too much trouble, could you please post the pictures and advise the deviation numbers at the time the pads were removed? Thanks

Also 2000 C2 for me. My cam deviations were out of spec so I knew I likely needed the pads replaced. That's way above my aptitude so I brought it to my indy who recommended that I change the chains at the same time. I had a lot of engine-out maintenance done at the same time, so the added expense of replacing the chains wasn't that much. Chains can let go and take out your engine.

U can only chamge the 2 small chains between the cams unless u split the motor. Its the 2 long chains that go from the ims to cam sproket that cause the timing offset. To the op, u can search my user name to see my thread on the doing the variocam pads, 2 small chains and long chain guides. Its been about 3 years now but it had my numbers and pictures.

Quotes source post: 18918545

My numbers were Bank 1 -3 deg, Bank 2 -3 deg before the work. After they were 0 and -1.

Many thanks for the photos and the data. It looks like you conservatively decided to replace the pads even if the deviation angles were still within specs. This seems a good idea considering the amount of wear on two of the four pads

You might want to consider replacing the three chain tensioners too.

My understanding is that the pads can be removed by lowering the engine some, without removing the engine completely from the car. Does that apply also to the tensioners?

Yes, but you may have to remove the AC compressor to change the bank 2 tensioner

Many thanks for your reply.

I would pull the motor if doing the variocam pads, expecially if its your first time. Its near impossible to get the scavange pumps in and double/triple check your work. Its will be well worth it if u r doing it yourself. As said above tensioners can be done with motor in car but ac compressor has to be lifted out of the way.

Quotes source post: 18920374

I�m pretty sure the tech that did my pads did not remove the engine from the car.

Quotes source post: 18920296

I had mine done, in part, because I had a failed solenoid and they were already in there. Then I had a 2nd solenoid fail 6 months later. I chalk that up to bad luck.

Quotes source post: 18920798

See my comments above.....experienced tech, yes but 1st timer, i would not recommend.

Quotes source posts: 18918188, 18920655, 18920798

Same year as yours, ~60k miles. I did my left side last year. My numbers were ~6.5 and ~1.0 (iirc) and I brought bank 1 down to 2.0. I did about three rounds of running the engine, checking the deviation, and dialing in the cam sproket adjustment to compensate for chain wear and tensioners. See my post for pics and work summary. To prep I read De Jeeper and Mike Murphy's posts along with others and Youtube vids, all of which made it easier than expected. I expect my bank 2 pads look about the same. I've been putting off doing them since this deviation is stable around 1.0. I really don't want to remove the engine though. I saw somewhere bank 2 can be done in the car if you remove the exhaust manifold but I fear broken studs.