Snapped oil pump/counter balance chain on 1.4 TDi SKoda Fabia

[Tbonesclark]

We own a Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDi Estate 2008 Model (MK1 shape), which recently came to a grinding halt, at first i thought it might have been starter motor problems but no, that would have been an easy problem to fix. Then thought cam belt. On further investigation and to cut story short, found that the cambelt (recently replaced) was fine but a secondary drive chain in the sump (engine out of car job) which drives the oil pump and counter balance shaft had snapped, this causing engine to lock up, damaged parts, drive chain, chain tensioner and crankshaft drive gear (teeth missing), On further inspection it seems that the tensioner had began to fail causing chain to rattle, causing wear on the casing before failing on its pivot point and braking free and braking the chain and jamming up, other damage caused was on the crankshaft because of the chain locking up the drive gear, this had spun on the crankshaft on warped on stuck on due to the heat. So to the repair. The chain drive kit be bought readily with the tensioner, but one problem is that Skoda don't sell the crankshaft drive gear seperately, only with the crankshaft, which would mean stripping top of engine down as well, very expensive indeed... On searching the net I found full kit including tensioner and crankshaft drive gear so I am going to try to clean up residue on crankshaft on replace drive gear, will rebuild engine and see what the outcome is. (Parts sourced through buycarparts.co.uk- Febi Bilstein part No.43667 is complete kit). will post soon to see how things are going. hope this will give people an incite into problems caused and will make people ask about when it should be changed because Skoda don't seem to indicate this in service book and have not asked about when contacting us about other services. Personally although it may cost more to do, (it needs engine out) it should be done with the cambelt.