115k 2012 Manual. Should I do the whole timing system?

[maxgberg]

I dont have any noises or obvious issues but I just learned about the tensioner issue and this has me thinking I should just take care of everything. Am I right in thinking this? Anything else I should be considering while my guy is in there?

 

[GolNat]

Yep do the whole shebang. Chains, guides, tensioner. The balancing chains are another thing to consider.

 

[MrFancypants]

Oh yeah, do it all. Best case scenario is that you get another 30k out of the chain. If you’re paying someone to go in there get it all done.

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Don't be like me and have to do it twice after the original chain started rattling due to stretch after just doing the tensioner first

 

[zrickety]

I thought the 2012 had the newer tensioners? You might want to look in the inspection hole, if it's the old design do it, if it's the new design no worries.
I have only done the newer upper chain and tensioner on both my cars. The lower chains have never been a problem, the guides you can look for wear and make a judgement call.

 

[2012TP]

Had the full job (chains/guides/tensioner/etc) done on my 2012 at around 113k, despite already having the updated part from factory. Shop even said the stretch wasn’t bad at all.

Was worth it for the peace of mind to me.

 

[maxgberg]

I thought the 2012 had the newer tensioners? You might want to look in the inspection hole, if it's the old design do it, if it's the new design no worries.
I have only done the newer upper chain and tensioner on both my cars. The lower chains have never been a problem, the guides you can look for wear and make a judgement call.

Do you know if there is a way to call with Vin to check on the part?

 

[maxgberg]

Do you know if there is a way to call with Vin to check on the part?

Also my car was built 9/11 so I was pretty sure it was the old part

 

[GolNat]

You can check the stretch with OBD11 or VagCom.

My dealer could not look it up they told me. It's easy to inspect yourself. There are a few videos on it.

 

[vdubnick]

there is a rubber plug on the chain cover, pop it out and you can see the tensioner, super easy to check the tensioner from the right side wheel well, first thing i did after getting my car

i believe the plug was for factory QA, or to pull the relief after assembly. either way, it is a direct view

 

[Grabbit]

I replaced my chains/guides/tensioners and even the cam bridge all at once at 80k miles. I also have a 2010 GTI with the old style tensioner so I did all of this for the piece of mind.

I ended up doing all the work myself and it wasn't terrible. Just a lot of torque to yield bolts that need to get replaced in addition to the needed parts. I think I spent about $100 on the TSI specific tools for it as well which included the crank counter hold tool from VW/Snapon. All in all I think parts were around $500 for mostly OEM parts and Febi/Bilstein chains. At 119k now with no issues.

 

[mkv_martinez]

I thought the 2012 had the newer tensioners? You might want to look in the inspection hole, if it's the old design do it, if it's the new design no worries.
I have only done the newer upper chain and tensioner on both my cars. The lower chains have never been a problem, the guides you can look for wear and make a judgement call.

Also my car was built 9/11 so I was pretty sure it was the old part

You can check the stretch with OBD11 or VagCom.

My dealer could not look it up they told me. It's easy to inspect yourself. There are a few videos on it.

As someone who has been on these forums since before I had my 2012 GTI (also has a 2011 build date) - these are all the correct answers.
You can check the inspection hole with a bit of patience and a mirror to see if its the new vs old revision, you can use VAGCOM to measure slack (I forget what is considered acceptable), and the 2012's mostly are known for having the new revision (as does mine)

The new revision tensioners are not known to have the systemic catastrophic failure. These parts can fail anyway, just like in any other car with a similar system. Most of the time when it fails its catastrophic on most modern cars as far as I know. But again, the new revisions are not widely know to fail like the older ones did.

 

[zrickety]

The new tensioner design is much more robust. Deeper grooves that go all the way around the piston. I have heard of aftermarket versions failing, so make sure it's oem.