2011 VRS TSI with high millage will i get timing chain issues ?

[willy0329]

I am aware of the timing chain and tensioner issues ,would i be taking a huge risk and spending my hard earned cash on an 11 reg tsi vrs with 120,00 miles,

 

if the problem was going to happen would it of happend by now ? if i buy i wont have any spare money for big repair bills,

 

is there any signs to look for or noises with the timing chain any help appreciated . 

[Ootohere]

With a 30,000 mile plus a year car, what sort of Servicing & Warranty work has it had in 4 years.?

 

(Doh,  EDIT,  is it 12,000 miles it has done?)

 

Best check the History, all works Invoiced, in the Service Book or Skoda Computer System.

Oil Used etc etc from the Invoices.

 

Is it cheap enough, and are you getting any Warranty?

 

It is a Gamble / Lottery, maybe look for one with better odds.

Edited 15 April, 2015 by goneoffSKi

[rob_e]

mine had a noticable rattle on start up when cold for a few weeks before it failed.. but i dont think all of them had that.

 

 

failures are pretty rare though, mine was 70k ish miles but several had been at lower mileage..  

 

personally i'd factor in the cost of putting the latest parts revision on there as part of the purchase.  peace of mind and a 2 yr warranty on those parts from that point on..

[willy0329]

Its for sale for £5,295 but says the lowest he will take is £5,100 its only had 5 services so must be due 6th on longlife and yes its done 120,000 miles hence the price ,i take it that a new chain and tensioner at skoda will be about £600+ fitted with warranty, i am hopfully going to see it today as its only 10 miles away and check all history and service information .

[radders567]

I have the bottom pulley holding tool if anyone is interested in buying to do their tensioner. The tensioner was about £36 iirc, you also need to do an engine oil and filter change. The cover can quite easily be damaged when removing, if I were to do another one I would probably buy the cover to make things easier. Hope this helps.

[blackspaven]

i take it that a new chain and tensioner at skoda will be about £600+ fitted with warranty

 

Good luck with that, you're looking a grand+.

[brad1.8T]

Good luck with that, you're looking a grand+.

 

That would be the after failure price wouldn't it?

 

As a preventive measure it costs about AUD800 (GBP500ish) down here and our workshop rates and parts are way more expensive than the UK.  Parts are about +50% and the workshop rates are AUD 100-200/hour

[blackspaven]

Nope, the price I was quoted by several dealers (and several indys whom I suspect were just matching their nearest dealer) for just normal preventative work was over a £1000! The lowest I found was £466.70 but that was a single garage near Wakefield (on the failure thread) and that was only because someone on the failure thread had already mentioned it otherwise I'd have never known. Miles away from me, but I'm tempted to get it done next year when I need a service as it's a good few hours to get to from me.

 

As mentioned on the failure thread, over here it seems common that the after incident price can be anything up to about £6000 for a complete rebuild, depending on how much damage is or isn't done.

 

As a fellow 1.8 owner Brad, it's seems slightly less chance of it judging by the numbers of our engines that have gone bang compared to the vrs 2.0l, but it's still something that I'm aware of and not sure whether to preemptively act upon it or not. What are your thoughts?

Edited 16 April, 2015 by blackspaven

[hanseandy]

For reference timing chain and tensioner plus all guides etc... was just under £600 fitted by Skoda, had it done about a year ago.

[willy0329]

My local dealer ridgeway skoda are working out a price and will come back to me, the parts guy told me the tensioner price straight away the latest revision tensioner is £45 inc vat,funny how he knew the price without checking ! he advised if high millage change everything due to poss streched chain if low millage just tensioner . its almost as if they know theres a problem with multi revisions on a fairly new engine.

 

Nope, the price I was quoted by several dealers (and several indys whom I suspect were just matching their nearest dealer) for just normal preventative work was over a £1000! The lowest I found was £466.70 but that was a single garage near Wakefield (on the failure thread) and that was only because someone on the failure thread had already mentioned it otherwise I'd have never known. Miles away from me, but I'm tempted to get it done next year when I need a service as it's a good few hours to get to from me.

 

As mentioned on the failure thread, over here it seems common that the after incident price can be anything up to about £6000 for a complete rebuild, depending on how much damage is or isn't done.

 

As a fellow 1.8 owner Brad, it's seems slightly less chance of it judging by the numbers of our engines that have gone bang compared to the vrs 2.0l, but it's still something that I'm aware of and not sure whether to preemptively act upon it or not. What are your thoughts?

Whats the breakdown on the £1000 price for the work if you have a quote please so i know the price for the parts and the price and hours of labour , if one garage quotes £466.70 fitted whats there breakdown as well please if you have qoutes for work ? 

[PC1212]

120K and only 5 services???

IMHO walk away 

[brad1.8T]

Nope, the price I was quoted by several dealers (and several indys whom I suspect were just matching their nearest dealer) for just normal preventative work was over a £1000! The lowest I found was £466.70 but that was a single garage near Wakefield (on the failure thread) and that was only because someone on the failure thread had already mentioned it otherwise I'd have never known. Miles away from me, but I'm tempted to get it done next year when I need a service as it's a good few hours to get to from me.

 

As mentioned on the failure thread, over here it seems common that the after incident price can be anything up to about £6000 for a complete rebuild, depending on how much damage is or isn't done.

 

As a fellow 1.8 owner Brad, it's seems slightly less chance of it judging by the numbers of our engines that have gone bang compared to the vrs 2.0l, but it's still something that I'm aware of and not sure whether to preemptively act upon it or not. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for the price update - for once something is cheaper down here :-)

 

I have the Stage 0 BZB engine which was only in production until mid-2008?  It's never given a hint of timing chain rattle. It was superceded by a CABA/B/D Stage 1 EA888 configuration which featured several updates to improve fuel economy including a "self regulating" oil pump.

 

I'm making some very large guesses here but maybe it's because:

• I over-service my engine & change my oil & filter every 7500km.  The galleries & sump are really clean & there is almost no sludge, therefore the timing chain tensioner gets up to pressure instantly & moves very freely?
• The BZB engine has a "better" oil pump.  The self regulating oil pump doesn't produce enough pressure quickly enough to "energise" the chain tensioner?

You'll note my question marks as it's purely speculation on my part.

 

I don't intend to do mine unless it starts making some warning noises.  The car is worth SFA so if it fails without warning then I'll either scrap the car or re-engine it with a 2.0L (probably the former).

 

This is worth a read 

http://grouptraining.avme.net:8080/documents/library/436WGEN[1].pdf

[blackspaven]

Here are two of the quotes I got, and the only ones to give a breakdown. The first came to £1063.84 after vat:

 

 

The second came in at £860.33, but for some reason they wrote that they were aware of this issue and 'the' technical bulletin, and it' wasn't the chain and tensioner that are failing but will add just the cost of parts at £70.84 as they'll already be off. Not quite sure what they think is failing in their opinion.

 

 

Would be very interested to hear from hanseandy which dealership is offering that with all the guides and everything else changed for £600! The nearest approved repairer/dealer to me is Seat Camberley and they rocked in with the largest quote of £1075 but I would never go there anyway as they were snotty with the ex-wifes seat and there's one turd there who has no idea of customer service.

 

Brad, makes me happy you saying about the BZB engine cos that's zactly what I got! You reckon that self regulating oil pump makes a real world difference to delivery then, regardless of the tensioner issue?

[willy0329]

I think i will give this tsi vrs a miss as its due no 6 service as well i am not a fan of long life servicing every 18-20k  it must slowly just kill the engine.I think i would be asking for trouble at 120,000k all long life service and no fixed service at all . 

[TsvRS]

You would be much better off going to an independent who does frequent work on engines and will actually know what they are doing rather than a dealer who doesn't.

[blackspaven]

Those two quotes were from well respected indys on this forum, that's partially where I got the companies from.

[brad1.8T]

 

Brad, makes me happy you saying about the BZB engine cos that's zactly what I got! You reckon that self regulating oil pump makes a real world difference to delivery then, regardless of the tensioner issue?

 

I honestly have no idea - I actualy don't know what it is.  I assume it's a variable pressure thing.

 

I think if you pre-emptively fixed every possible issue you'd be pretty poor.  Sometimes you have to make a calculated gamble.