Cam chain renewel axx engine code

[v4rley]

About £40 each and tps will sell them to you as well 

Really? Is this the price from tps?

[Juliand]

Very interesting trail of comments. This job fills me with fear. At what kind of mileage, roughly, will this need doing? I was surprised to see one comment about wear at only 42,000 miles (?). A very big bill at the $tealers! 

[Pesky jones]

Tps just quoted me 66 for chain and 100 for the tensioner. I think thats with trade discount as well, they wont have it in stock untill tuesday anyway.

[Pesky jones]

I dont.underatand how others are getting cheaper quotes? Ive been giving the part numbers so how do they vary so much?

[rich83]

I got the chain, tensioner and end gasket for 80 quid  just need to rocket gasket now.

[Pesky jones]

Where from @rich83 ?

[pudding]

Got it done in approx 5 hours.  Removing the Cam adjuster bolt was the only butt clenching moment, but it cracked off nicely.

The weird thing is it all looked fine!  I nearly didn't bother but then I thought feck it, I've bought the bits so why not.

I was impressed by the condition of my engine at 100K.  It's a BYD lump.  It's clearly been looked after before I bought it and I change the oil every 5K with Mobil 1 ESP 5W/30.

Barely any staining at all and the tensioner is hardly touched either.



Although mine wasn't mega noisy at idle, I'm glad I did it as there's a fair bit of chain droop at TDC compared to a new chain.



New chain and the droop is a lot less.  Car is quieter at idle now which is a bonus.  I caught it early I think!



Those running a Loba HPFP, you might wanna change your follower more frequently than usual.  It's starting to go after only 20K miles.  Must be the stronger spring in the pump I reckon?



The only 2 things I'd recommend, based on my experience, is use the VW tools and torque wrench or a very rigid breaker bar to remove the cam adjuster bolt, otherwise it's all straight forward. Add a vacuum pump O ring to the parts list as well because it's a lot easier with that out of the way.

[doylebros]

Vacuum oring?

[Pesky jones]

I think that was a waste of time @Pudding whats the worst that can happen?

Good job mate, although it looked not that bad, you never know and now you have peace of mind. Well worth it.

Ive been a bit stupid, I should have asked you to push your old tensioner up and down with it all still assembled to see if you were getting oil seepage around the shaft which mine is doing to see whether its supposed to. Anyone else planning on doing so, please let me know.

Head over to my thread, theres a question waiting for you

[pudding]

The vacuum pump seals to the chain cover with an O ring.  I found the bottom chain cover bolt is easier to get at with the vacuum pump removed.

Yeah my old tensioner seeped oil when I pushed it down Pesky mate.

Just been out for a 50 odd mile shake down and it drives and idles soooooo much better.  I guess it was all worn out more than it looked.

[dajonic]

Is there supposed to be an actual mileage or age for this to be changed or is this coming down to individual cases and how much noise the chains making.

[doylebros]

Is there supposed to be an actual mileage or age for this to be changed or is this coming down to individual cases and how much noise the chains making.

Noise is a the best guide to get it sorted - rattling when the engines up to temperature for me is saying get the chain and tensioner done.

[rich83]

Excellent pics pudding. You got a part number for this o ring?

Is that a gen. Cam locker?

[JamieBiz]

I need to do this as my poor Gti sounds like a tractor!

This job scares the hell out of me though, not really having anywhere to DIY this other than roadside is another problem i have.

i've asked a couple garages for quotes now and they both told me that my car doesnt have a cam chain, it has a cam belt  even with some more explaining i find it hard for them to understand what exactly i want.

i would love to be able to take it to the stealers, but i just afford that, does anyone in the southwest know of any good garages?

[pudding]

Excellent pics pudding. You got a part number for this o ring?

Is that a gen. Cam locker?

Cheers.  Impressive pics for a phone!  I remember paying £1000s in SLR to get that image quality 20 years ago!!

Anyway, I didn't change the O ring mate as I didn't plan on removing the vacuum pump, so didn't get one in.   As it turned out, the O ring was still springy and sealed up OK.  The only gasket that had gone hard was the rocker one.  I just put that in there as a recommendation for others.  I would have replaced it if I had one!

Yeah that's a genuine locker