I've always read about this, but thought I was in the clear..
am i?
I have a 2013 GTI.
I had a bad experience with a chain on my last car, a 2001 gti vr6. I was going about 5 mph and just barely tapped the gas, and then I lost all power like a coilpack went out. I even drove it home like that. Turns out I stretched the chain and broke a couple teeth on the sprocket, somehow that's all the damage I did. Everybody always said the chain was a job to be done at 120k, and this happened to me at 111k. I'm glad they use a chain and not a belt, but I still wouldn't trust the chains beyond 120k.
I went though this entire thread and compiled every report of members' tensioner versions. Missing build dates are simply due to members not including that data. Every model year '10-11 is old-style (except that one with a new motor), and every '14 is new-style, so I excluded those years. I guess I could have just excluded '13, as well.
Here's another version that only includes reports with build dates:
I wish I had more data points for the MY12s with the old style tensioner. Not many build dates were reported for those. It seems pretty clear that the transition point was 9/11, but that's only based on three reported build dates of old-style MY12s.
I really don't know what was up with that one errant 2/12 one. In retrospect I should have included a column for member username, but I'm not about to go back and do it all over.
I had the tensioner etc replaced around 55k miles, would you say it would last the life of the car from now or its best to replace it again at some point?
If you updated the tensioner to the newest revision your next weak link is the chain itself. The old version has been known to stretch pretty bad by 100k miles. However, when I changed my cam chain at 105k I didn't have any significant stretch. Was your cam chain updated to the revised version (part #06K109158AD)? In the below pic the updated version is on the right (installed on the cam) and the old version is on the left in my hand.
IMG_20171225_151821 by Tony G, on Flickr
Where do u find the build date ? I have a 2012 gti 54k miles ...sounds like I'm in trouble
The build date is usually on the driver side door jam towards the bottom. Should say Germany and build date.
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