Listen to the chain rattle and tell me what you think (link on page 2)

[GTI-Ross]

this is recording of the engine over the past few weeks, as you can tell its getting worse. YOu can clearly hear the 3-5 seconds sound very rattley 

[MAT ED30]

That sounds horrid don't think I would be starting that tell em to get it sorted ASAP

[Snoopy]

Thats the worst ive heard. Seeing how it works If it was mine i wouldn't start it again. I would either play that to a master tech at a local dealer dont be fobbed off by the paper pusher service desk staff then trailer it to them to replace or do the same at a specialist to replace it.

That tensioner is faulty imo.

[candy turbo]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

[GTI-Ross]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

correct on all of the above, mine is a 2009 with 53k on it. Going in on Monday for a check. I have burn the audio clips on to a CD and will make sure they listen to it before starting it up.

[Hedge]

Does the TSI have hydraulic tappets?

[candy turbo]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

correct on all of the above, mine is a 2009 with 53k on it. Going in on Monday for a check. I have burn the audio clips on to a CD and will make sure they listen to it before starting it up.

To be honest id be getting the revised tensioner kit on your car now , if id have brought a 09/10 gti its the first thing id have done its apparently not a big or too expensive a job

[GTI-Ross]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

correct on all of the above, mine is a 2009 with 53k on it. Going in on Monday for a check. I have burn the audio clips on to a CD and will make sure they listen to it before starting it up.

To be honest id be getting the revised tensioner kit on your car now , if id have brought a 09/10 gti its the first thing id have done its apparently not a big or too expensive a job

£300 all in mate. But im still under warranty, so trying to get VW to do it for free

[SkyJawa]

It doesn't matter what garage does the work on these warranty's they just have to be VAT registered.

They will diagnose the fault, work out the cost to change and then they will phone the warranty company for approval to complete the work.

Should be easy as pie.  Make sure when you get the car in to VW you give them the warranty details.

[candy turbo]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

correct on all of the above, mine is a 2009 with 53k on it. Going in on Monday for a check. I have burn the audio clips on to a CD and will make sure they listen to it before starting it up.

I see what your saying , are you using the car ? £ 300 is nt much of a hit that the grief and cost if it goes pop
I listened to mine this morning and its possible the quietest vw petrol ive heard so some thing is mt right with yours mate
To be honest id be getting the revised tensioner kit on your car now , if id have brought a 09/10 gti its the first thing id have done its apparently not a big or too expensive a job

£300 all in mate. But im still under warranty, so trying to get VW to do it for free

[GTI-Ross]

It doesn't matter what garage does the work on these warranty's they just have to be VAT registered.

They will diagnose the fault, work out the cost to change and then they will phone the warranty company for approval to complete the work.

Should be easy as pie.  Make sure when you get the car in to VW you give them the warranty details.

May as well get VW to do it if possible, then if anything related to it goes wrong i will have some ground to stand on.

PS: Warranty company hasnt approved it yet, want VW to go "Yep - theres a problem here, lets get it fixed"

[Snoopy]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

one came out may 2010 another in 2011 and another end 2012. The mk7 has the same part number just a letter difference so maybe a new revision just out. The may 2010 is better but still failures too.

[GTI-Ross]

Out of interest what year is your car ? When i was looking for mine a couple of vw guys i know told me to avoid 2009 and early 2010 cars for this reason unless it had documented proof it had the revised tensioner fitted i believe a revised tensioner came out in early 2010 then another mid 2010 since this no problems

one came out may 2010 another in 2011 and another end 2012. The mk7 has the same part number just a letter difference so maybe a new revision just out. The may 2010 is better but still failures too.

Hopefully they will stick the latest 2012one in if they choose to replace it

[candy turbo]

Just how common is this fault ? Surely if there had been lots of failures it would have become a re call ? Is it just a handfull of cars or what ?

[GTI5]

Well maybe VW knows for sure but the numbers have been increasing and you can see a number of threads on Golf GTI UK and Briskoda. Also a long running thread on the MK6 forum for US owners.

As mentioned on the other thread on Golf GTI UK your engine sounds like mine did before it failed and it's possible it will happen in by the time you hit 60k.

You may observe a noticeable deterioration in the days leading up to total failure.