I've been advised my thermostat housing is leaking slightly, causing damage and risk of further damage to a multiplug and wiring.

Been quoted £1100 for waterpump/thermostat plus replacing damaged electrics. Noticed a slight coolant loss but not excessive.  They've also noted a timing chain correlation fault code.

This is at a large independent VAG specialist.

Does this seem excessive, or about right for this work?

 

Edited 12 October, 20232 yr by TeebsVRS

Seems expensive!

 

I can offer the water pump and thermostat with all genuine parts for roughly £700 all in.

 

it depends what plug is damaged and how it’s damaged and depends what is wrong with the timing correlation fault.

 

located north London 

Edited 13 October, 20232 yr by ApertureS

9 hours ago, ApertureS said:

Seems expensive!

 

I can offer the water pump and thermostat with all genuine parts for roughly £700 all in.

 

it depends what plug is damaged and how it’s damaged and depends what is wrong with the timing correlation fault.

 

located north London 

Nowhere near London mate.

 

Car has gone into limp mode this afternoon.

Had full timing chain kit and waterpump changed, with coolant and oil change £1800 all in.

'kinell! 😒

8 hours ago, TeebsVRS said:

Had full timing chain kit and waterpump changed, with coolant and oil change £1800 all in.

It's a lot of work and parts have gone up a lot. Sounds reasonable, although is a significant hit to wallet. 

I doubt that I have spent that amount in total for all my repairs and servicing in 40 years of motoring including tyres.

 

The 7 years before that were buying, doing up and selling bangers at a profit every month so I did not include them because in fact the net cost of those repairs cost nothing and generated a profit.

 

Equally I did not include the money I spent on repairing the various write offs I have bought and run for years.

 

It's a different world out there and much of what I read scares me in terms of what is seen as reasonable motoring expenses these days 😒

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

I doubt that I have spent that amount in total for all my repairs and servicing in 40 years of motoring including tyres.

 

The 7 years before that were buying, doing up and selling bangers at a profit every month so I did not include them because in fact the net cost of those repairs cost nothing and generated a profit.

 

Equally I did not include the money I spent on repairing the various write offs I have bought and run for years.

 

It's a different world out there and much of what I read scares me in terms of what is seen as reasonable motoring expenses these days 😒

Yes. By reasonable, I mean for the jobs required and once you factor the parts required for those jobs at a guess probably near £900 if genuine. Possibly even £1000. Then that's £800 or £900 left for Labour. And they are two quite time consuming jobs. But it is a lot of money in my eyes, maybe not to the manufacturers. All in the name of expected durability. All expected sir. Just swallow it... Beyond 5 or 6 years you're on your own - sky is the limit.. 

@TeebsVRS out of interest, how many miles for the chain to stretch requiring replacement with tensikner? Based on water pump leaking i'd say, and i'm guessing north of 6 years, 70k miles? 

Timing chain problems were far more likely on the Gen 1 EA888 but nothing stopping any of the later ones having issues. Did you notice any engine rattle at startup for a second or two beforehand? 

 

Its not awful, I paid £1300 for timing chain replacement, cam magnets, and a part with a oil mesh filter which had failed (was explained to me a long time ago) plus service on my old mk6 GTi, that was 2019.

1 hour ago, Dooge said:

Timing chain problems were far more likely on the Gen 1 EA888 but nothing stopping any of the later ones having issues. Did you notice any engine rattle at startup for a second or two beforehand? 

 

Its not awful, I paid £1300 for timing chain replacement, cam magnets, and a part with a oil mesh filter which had failed (was explained to me a long time ago) plus service on my old mk6 GTi, that was 2019.

Yeah, the mk6 gti was the gen 2. big tensioner and timing chain problems - same engine in mk2 fl vRS.

 

He had the dreaded crank / camshaft correlation fault if I remember correctly back to the OP original post...

Just now, TheClient said:

Yeah, the mk6 gti was the gen 2. big tensioner and timing chain problems - same engine in mk2 fl vRS.

 

He had the dreaded crank / camshaft correlation fault if I remember correctly back to the OP original post...

Ah, interesting, I've not seen or heard of that before, that isn't tensioner related then? 

 

Yeh, I was not a happy bunny! Originally quoted as £850 before the extras. That seems to be car ownership though.

1 hour ago, Dooge said:

Ah, interesting, I've not seen or heard of that before, that isn't tensioner related then? 

 

Yeh, I was not a happy bunny! Originally quoted as £850 before the extras. That seems to be car ownership though.

Well the reason the tensioner became over extended sometimes was related to chain stretch, so there was some interaction as early revision chains were stretttchhy.

 

But early edition tensioners in the gen 2 also had big  big problems on their own. Like the spring clip that held the rathchet teeth in place. The ratchet teeth. There were so many weak points that would let go with disaster often ensuing. 

Edited 3 November, 20232 yr by TheClient

On 31/10/2023 at 16:03, TheClient said:

@TeebsVRS out of interest, how many miles for the chain to stretch requiring replacement with tensikner? Based on water pump leaking i'd say, and i'm guessing north of 6 years, 70k miles? 

This is a 64 plate on 109k miles