At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!!

[wolfie]

I'm sure you're right and by now there will be a specific fix or in place and associated service bulletin .(Or whatever they are calling them this week)

There are a fair few part numbers for the various bits, it's just a case of getting the latest revision for the parts. No doubt if I give the parts dept a ring they will know. Though the last time I asked a question of them they point blank refused to give me a part number. I assume because they thought I would simply but the part elsewhere once I knew.

There is a Ruville kit available, they've even put some info on YouTube, 10 minute job by the looks of it... LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaJ9e4eac0

http://www.ruville.com/en/suchergebniss ... %5D=Search

http://webcat.schaeffler-aftermarket.co ... 2080&csc=1

It doesn't really look that more difficult that doing a cam belt, but it's the bill that goes with it that hurts..

But from what I have read none of this is a permanent fix, even if you slash out and do all this the chain is still going to stretch again. It may take longer, but it will stretch because the design it tat.

I might get in touch with my feminine side and go for a test drive in a Seat Mii Mango....

[alexperkins]

30mpg all day long. You only live once

[Mayhem]

I had the chain, tension, chain guide, and i believe cover changed. All the bits that vw would have swapped. All genuine parts. I would advise any one that has a 1.2 tsi that makes any loud noises on start up to have it checked out

[wolfie]

30mpg all day long. You only live once

You mean VW are telling porkies again about their economy figures!! Who'd have thought it... Have you owned one or just hearsay??

I had the chain, tension, chain guide, and i believe cover changed. All the bits that vw would have swapped. All genuine parts. I would advise any one that has a 1.2 tsi that makes any loud noises on start up to have it checked out

I assume you had it done by an independent. What sort of cost and time was involved. So even on this little forum that's two people who have stopped up the cash for fixing Vuds rubbish designs. VW won't even check it for free. Shysters..

[alexperkins]

I used to have an Edition 30 Golf GTI and that did around 23mpg most of the time lol. Granted I did have a lead foot mind you

[wolfie]

It's beginning to feel like a comedy of errors with VW. Just out of curiosity I rang my local Vdud parts department to enquire if the had a repair kit associated with the cam chain. Only really wanted an idea of what sort of cost would be involved with using genuine parts.

His reply was we "VW don't list a kit of parts, they would all have to be ordered individually so there is no list. You'd be better ringing Skoda!!! They do a kit as a complete set, just give them your engine number they are the same engines, they will be able to give you a price" It's laughable really, he could even be arsed to put up the drawings and look.

By contrast, when I rang Skoda the parts chap was first rate and went out of his way to price up the correct parts. (Even though I'd told him mine was a Polo)

Chain repair kit £85.25
Updated Chain case £82.02
Plus a few quid for the appropriate sealant gu..

[RUM4MO]

Well unfortunately it is a Skoda design(?) and built engine - maybe that answers a few of your questions (3rd world materials being used?).

I still think that you should dig deeply into the Skoda forum as I still think that the modified cover was only ever needed during the reign of the first few "fix-it packs" that failed to solve some of the initial problems. Also, I'm hope by now that the design and manufacture quality of these timing chains is back to what it used to be about 20 or 30 years ago, or someone in VAG has missed a trick!

Don't let these little things worry you, just prepare yourself for the next nasties which seem to be the materials of plastics used on the clutch pedal pivot bearings etc - it just seems to go on and on, with no sign of VAG really bothering too much about any of it.

[wolfie]

Well unfortunately it is a Skoda design(?) and built engine - maybe that answers a few of your questions (3rd world materials being used?).

I still think that you should dig deeply into the Skoda forum as I still think that the modified cover was only ever needed during the reign of the first few "fix-it packs" that failed to solve some of the initial problems. Also, I'm hope by now that the design and manufacture quality of these timing chains is back to what it used to be about 20 or 30 years ago, or someone in VAG has missed a trick!

Don't let these little things worry you, just prepare yourself for the next nasties which seem to be the materials of plastics used on the clutch pedal pivot bearings etc - it just seems to go on and on, with no sign of VAG really bothering too much about any of it.

I'll be honest in that I'm not quite sure where this is taking me, or why I'm chasing it other than it's just got me curious. My gut feeling is to just forget it and swap the car later in the year. It's just I don't like the idea of just passing on the problem to some poor soul who like me had no idea that this engine has problems "built-in" from day one.

Yeah I get the whole Skoda/Vdud production crossover thing but it winds me up that VW are just fobbing folk off, or worse ripping them off with repair costs that they should be picking up the tab for. If you have any links to the threads on any Skoda forums post em an I'll read up. Also generally folk appear to be happier with their Skoda's than Vduds. Now whether that's down to their expectations not being so high or Skoda's customer care actually giving a damn about it's customers. If they are built in the same factory from the same materials there should be no difference. I don't know.

Why do you think the cam chain cover was a "first-fix" solution? The impression I get is that better quality materials in chain construction was the main change but combining it with the modified cover stopped or at least made it more difficult for the chain to jump teeth, causing the catastrophic engine failures. Dunno maybe at this point you know more than me? Ultimately looks like they simply gave up and changed the engine design completely. But that still means there are potentially 1000's of folk who own vehicles with this engine design being hit with a substantial bill at some point. And I really don't like the idea of me or anyone else for that matter being ripped off.

[Robby71]

On the subject of the ED30 Golf needing its charcoal canister replaced because the car was "being refuelled too often" - are you sure that what was said was not that that car was being "over filled with fuel" too often, as that will cause all the petrol engine cars trouble over time. I only tend to over fill if I'm then going to use at least the fuel quantity that I've forced in, typically on a long journey. I learned this out on a forum luckily - so stopped doing it unless then driving a long distance.

The tech said the problem was filling the car up too often - i told him i filled it once a month as i only do 80 miles a week so a week later it would be down 1/4, in 2 weeks down to 1/2, etc so it wasn't constantly brimmed.
I don't know why we have the canisters fitted as most cars don't have them.

I have a Triumph Street triple R bike and have seen photos on forums of american bikes same as mine and they have canisters fitted as standard, UK bikes don't have them

[Robby71]

wolfie - i called into the VW dealers today and asked about updates - they said when they service a car and check for fault codes the automatically check/ install updates as part of the service as it only takes 10 mins and they are usually doing something else (changing filter, etc) at the same time.

Did you speak to your dealer about the charge?

[wolfie]

wolfie - i called into the VW dealers today and asked about updates - they said when they service a car and check for fault codes the automatically check/ install updates as part of the service as it only takes 10 mins and they are usually doing something else (changing filter, etc) at the same time.

Did you speak to your dealer about the charge?

Cheers, now that is interesting. Naively I thought that would happen as a matter of course at a main dealer. I suspect I'm just being fobbed off by my dealer, either that or they are clueless. I've not had any response from them as yet, gut feeling is I won't. I thought if I put it in writing (email) as opposed to a phone call someone would reply, maybe not??

Thanks again.

[RUM4MO]

On the subject of the ED30 Golf needing its charcoal canister replaced because the car was "being refuelled too often" - are you sure that what was said was not that that car was being "over filled with fuel" too often, as that will cause all the petrol engine cars trouble over time. I only tend to over fill if I'm then going to use at least the fuel quantity that I've forced in, typically on a long journey. I learned this out on a forum luckily - so stopped doing it unless then driving a long distance.

The tech said the problem was filling the car up too often - i told him i filled it once a month as i only do 80 miles a week so a week later it would be down 1/4, in 2 weeks down to 1/2, etc so it wasn't constantly brimmed.
I don't know why we have the canisters fitted as most cars don't have them.

I have a Triumph Street triple R bike and have seen photos on forums of american bikes same as mine and they have canisters fitted as standard, UK bikes don't have them

I believe that the carbon canister to capture petrol fumes was brought in years ago for all models being sold in the EU at least, prior to that time, petrol fumes were allowed to be vented to atmosphere, maybe they were brought in round about the time that all crankcase gases also required to be collected and burned in the engine (along with the petrol fumes).

[RUM4MO]

wolfie - i called into the VW dealers today and asked about updates - they said when they service a car and check for fault codes the automatically check/ install updates as part of the service as it only takes 10 mins and they are usually doing something else (changing filter, etc) at the same time.

Did you speak to your dealer about the charge?

I don't want to appear nasty, but what you were told is the correct company line. In essence, what happens is, when you book the car in for a service, hopefully soon after that, someone or more probably some application, checks your car VIN for outstanding updates, remember here we are talking about updates, who's action stops a dangerous or "bad press" event happening - this will have been decided by either VAG UK or VAG AG back home in Germany. We are not talking about updates to remove any silly problems - the customer will need to have a few visits before these fixes are rolled out. One small issue I had with the old 9N Polo was that it, from new, during winter weather, throw up lots of silly engine fault codes into including Lambda senor errors and "bank 2" issues - a four cylinder inline engine only has one bank, ie "bank1" - always the same answer - "no updates needed" - but there was an update to cover that issue - only VW techs would know the reference number. Seat Ibiza 2009, many 1.4 SC Ibizas of this age were known to have been passed out with wrong BCM S/W - at Seat dealer "we have never heard about that one, so no we can't check up on it" - so Ibiza drains its battery if not used every few days. VW dealer with current Polo with latest 1.2TSI engine, makes noises, known by Skoda dealers to be caused by the EVAP hose being made of ribbed plastic - so it causes a whistle, Skoda allows and covers the cost of replacing the pipes with correct parts, VW dealer "no, we have not heard any thing about that" - on that one my plan is to buy the replacement hoses and fit them as I'm on my own!

[RUM4MO]

wolfie - i called into the VW dealers today and asked about updates - they said when they service a car and check for fault codes the automatically check/ install updates as part of the service as it only takes 10 mins and they are usually doing something else (changing filter, etc) at the same time.

Did you speak to your dealer about the charge?

Cheers, now that is interesting. Naively I thought that would happen as a matter of course at a main dealer. I suspect I'm just being fobbed off by my dealer, either that or they are clueless. I've not had any response from them as yet, gut feeling is I won't. I thought if I put it in writing (email) as opposed to a phone call someone would reply, maybe not??

Thanks again.

I've always (with Ford) dealt by snail mail as email boxes will soon get filling up - use recorded delivery etc. Direct this to customer care at VW UK, I'm not on Twitter, but some manufacturers are and are regretting this as it all becomes public.

The modified chain cover thing, I only became aware of what was happening when I started "looking in" on the Fabia Mk2 section of the Skoda forum - without dissing anyone, Skoda and Seat owners do tend to be willing and able to handle/question technical problems more so that your general VW owner, well at least for the Fabia/Polo/Ibiza models - I started doing this when I knew that the wife's next car would have a 1.2TSI engine, really trying to get ahead of any potential problems, so after the "great 1.4TSI twin charger debacle" quietened down, I moved on to the 1.2TSI issues.

As time has moved on, car manufacturers have become as useful/fit for purpose as political parties - progress??

Edit:- one thing to make sure is, if you plan to go belt and braces, will the modified chain cover be compatible with any modified chain wheels you fit? If I was you, I'd find out where your nearest "proper VAG indie" is located and go and talk to them and if you are happy, get them to upgrade your engine to a proper "solid" level.

Edit Edit:- no waste gate actuator noises or issue yet?

[RUM4MO]

wolfie - maybe have a look on the Skoda forum Fabia Mk2 section page 4 at the moment "1.2TSI chain problems" or something like that. The implication near the end of that thread is that VAG had concerns about being able to (cheaply) change the chain wheels so went for the "silly" option of designing a chain cover that would trap the chain if/when it tried to jump off. Once things had settled down or the tooling became available, VAG now know that they can replace the chain wheels and so have dropped the new chain cover. That thread is about a year old now, so who knows how far on this miserable mess has moved on.