"Timing has knocked out" - options?

[cheesy]

Hello all
I'm new to the forum. I'm posting here to try to help my parents who have a 2003 Polo which just died on them one day and since then it just won't start.
My dad took (towed) it to the local VAG garage and what they diagnosed was the following:
"Checked and found vehicle not starting, carried out checks and found timing has knocked out, chain tensioner springs have weakened requires N (new?) cylinder head and chain timing, tensioners and springs £1930 inc"

I don't know much (anything) about cars myself; that's why I'm here. After speaking to the guy and also taking it to another local mechanic it seems there is the option to just replace the timing chain (?) which it seems has slipped, but that that apparently is risky because you won't know until you open it up if there has been valve damage?

So it seems my dad has three options - change the whole lot for 2 grand, try to change the timing or something but that is apparently risky, or the third option is get a replacement engine. But apparently these engines are prone to this problem and the worry there is that he spends maybe 800 - 1000 sourcing and replacing the engine and then the same thing happens to that engine some way down the line.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Is it a common problem?

Many thanks in advance; currently the car is just sitting there in their garage, SORNed, and my mum is gutted because she loves her little polo and in all other respects it's a lovely car.

[sephiroth09]

hi

if your parents really like the car and they would like to keep it ,i would suggest to take it to a vag specialist and get it repaired properly. Go to a few of them and see which one offer the best price , for a work like that you want a good mechanic with some experiece on Vag cars.i wouldn't use a second hand engine that might have the same problem again .About changing the timing i really don t know if it would work or not but again a Vag specialist would be able to give you more info and remember to at least call few of them and ask them their opinion.Looking around autotrader you can find some polos around 2 grand

good luck!

[cheesy]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Sorry for my delayed response - I didn't think anybody had replied because I didn't receive a notification.

By VAG specialist do you mean independent VAG specialist? It was a 'proper' VAG place that we took it to the first time who came back with that horrendous quote.
And yes, you're right, you can get these cars for 2k. The problem of course is that you have no idea if the car that you're about to buy is going to suffer the same fault/problem as the one you already have.

[fonzooorooo]

There's a 3rd way - strip yours down, check there's no block/piston/bore damage. If all's well there, and assuming there's valve/head damage, get hold of a good head from a breakers, then reassemble with NEW chains/tensioners ... That should give the best of both worlds - cheapest replacement parts, and best peace of mind as you'll have new chains.

And be thankful it's not a BMW - a mate of mine had a chain snap on a 60K diesel beemer - £7.5k to fix it!!!!!