Timing Chain Kit with Fitting in OE Supplier

A chain or consumption job: the parts and the labour, with the old tensioner kept for you to look at and the adaptations reset.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not Volkswagen, Audi, Seat or Skoda, and we are not appointed by any of them. Those are their trademarks and what we sell are parts that fit their cars. The useful thing about this group is that four badges share platforms and share parts, so the same component fits a Golf, an A3, a Leon and an Octavia and costs four different amounts at four different counters. We list it once, at one price, and tell you which platform it belongs to.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: Golf Mk5 Mk6 Mk7 Mk8, Passat B6 B7 B8, A3 8P 8V 8Y, A4 B8 B9, Leon 1P 5F KL, Octavia 1Z 5E NX, and the other group cars on the same platforms with a chain driven petrol engine
• Platform: chosen above. This part is shared across the group. The Volkswagen, the Audi, the Seat and the Skoda all take it, it is the same component in four different boxes, and the price here is the same whichever badge is on your car. Choose your badge above for your records, not because it changes anything.
• Engine: 1.4 TSI EA111 and EA211, 1.8 and 2.0 TSI and TFSI EA888. This group changes specification mid production and does it on a platform basis rather than a model year basis, so two cars registered the same week can take different parts. Send us the VIN with the order and we check the part against the build data before anything is dispatched. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 2005 to 2020 depending on platform and engine generation
• Quality: made by the firm that supplies the group, in that firm's own box rather than a dealer box. Same casting, same line, and on a group that shares parts across four brands this is where the saving actually is
• Part number: cross referenced to the group part number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not print one number against a listing that covers several supersessions, because on this group the supersessions are the whole point
• The failure this addresses: The early EA888 and the EA111 use a timing chain with a tensioner that was revised because the original could release under load and let the chain jump. The symptom is a rattle for a second or two on start up, and the window between that rattle and a bent valve is not as long as people hope. The revised tensioner is a different part number and it is what we supply.
• Labour time: six to nine hours for a chain from the front, engine out for pistons
• Coding: no coding, but the adaptation channels should be reset with a diagnostic system afterwards or the car keeps running on values it learned from the failed part
• Also needed: engine oil and filter, every single use stretch bolt, the front cover gaskets and a new crankshaft seal
• Torque: all timing bolts are single use, torqued then angled. Reusing one on a timing assembly is how a correct job fails at three thousand miles
• Interval: not scheduled, which is part of the problem. The revised tensioner was introduced because the original failed, and an engine still running the original part is running a part that was superseded for a reason
• Weight: approximately 8.6 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Check the tensioner part number: the revised one is a different number and an engine on the original is on borrowed time. Send us the VIN and we will tell you which one yours should have
• Oil consumption: The second generation EA888 has a known appetite for oil, which is the piston ring design rather than anything the owner did. Check the level properly every fortnight on one of these, because the low oil warning arrives later than you would like, and the long life service schedule makes it worse rather than better.
• Before you buy pistons: have the consumption measured properly and the breather system tested. A failed PCV valve produces exactly the same symptom for a tenth of the money, and we would rather sell you that
• Cam follower: On the direct injection petrol engines the high pressure fuel pump is driven off a lobe on the camshaft through a small bucket follower. The follower wears through, and once it does the pump body eats the camshaft lobe. The follower costs about fifteen pounds and the camshaft does not. It is worth pulling the pump and looking at it every oil service, and it takes twenty minutes.
• Servicing: The group's long life servicing regime stretches the oil interval on the basis of how the car has been driven. It suits a motorway car and it is actively bad for a car doing short cold journeys, which is most cars. A great many tired engines in this group are tired because they were serviced to the long life schedule in town. Switching to the fixed schedule costs one extra oil change every two years and it is the cheapest thing you can do for one of these engines.

What arrives

• the chain, guides and the revised tensioner
• sprockets where the kit includes them
• pistons and rings where the kit includes them
• every single use stretch bolt and the front cover gaskets
• an oil and filter service
• printed instructions with torque figures and angles

Fitting

Six to nine hours for a chain from the front of the engine, and engine out for pistons. Change the oil and filter afterwards and clean the pickup strainer, because the swarf from the worn guides has been going round the engine and collects there.

Which version to buy

Two honest warnings on this page. First, if your engine still has the original tensioner part number, the revised one is the whole point of the repair and fitting the superseded part again is money wasted. Second, before anybody sells you pistons for oil consumption, have the breather system tested: a failed PCV valve gives identical symptoms for about a tenth of the price, and it is the commonest thing we find.