Anyone know if the cam chain snaps on the 1.4 MPI engine, do the pistons hit the valves?

A friend has one of these which is coming up to 4 years old and apparently the cam chain has snapped. I was wondering if it is just a matter of fitting a new one and re-timing it. Mind you I think that a call to SUK would be in order as this should not have failed so soon as the car has not done that many miles. Local stealer has quoted around £400 to fix :eek:

I thought the idea was that with the 1.2 and 1.4 mpi engines that by having a chain rather than a belt that this was meant to last the lifetime of the car? You certainly wouldn't expect the chain to snap at that age. The timing belt kit including tensioner sprockets and a new auxiliary belt were about £250 fitted by my local Skoda dealer for my 1.4 16v engine so your price seems expensive unless the chain is an awful lot more expensive than the belt (you'd expect the labour time to be similar surely?).

I also wonder if as the 1.4 8v mpi engine is a pushrod engine rather than an over head cam engine that your friend might be lucky and have less risk of damage to the valves?

the 1.4 8v is a pushrod design

Never heard of anyone snapping a timing chain before as they are usually pretty solid.