Mine is currently at my local indie garage currently having the chain replaced. Most garages will not carry out the work if you supply the parts as they won't be able to warrant the work. You can ask for a parts list breakdown to be supplied and if they have nothing to hide they should be more than willing to do this.

This really is an engine out job and will take more than two days to complete. I have had several updates during the work and was invited to call in and inspect what they were doing and they took the time to explain the works fully. Normally the subframe would be dropped along with the engine but they were concerned about corrosion on the subframe bolts and were worried it may be damaged during removal. The engine had to be stripped of more ancillaries than normal to allow for the engine to be removed. Again this was all shown to me during the visit and explained in full. Total bill for all the work so far comes to £2850 inc vat and this includes DSG oil and filter, Hadlex oil and filter and new gaskets for ancillaries that are showing signs of weeping. Basically whilst the engine is out get it done. It is not a cheap repair but worth every penny for it to be done properly.

Hope this helps

 

I presume you mean the 3.2 V6 BHE engine?

Local VAG indie wants £2k to do chains and DMF.

 

Hi Kryton my indie doesn't like using patent parts because they normally don't last he is near Skegness , there was a chap on here who trailered his to a garage in Tamworth , ive seen on here it is a very expensive job , cheers Graham H :wink:

 

Hi Kryton my indie doesn't like using patent parts because they normally don't last

And rightly so, 99% of non-branded parts for sale on places like Amazon and eBay are cheap, poorly-made approximations of what would have been on the car. Even if a dealer uses a pattern part, that fails, they have the guarantee with their supplier, whereas if it's customer-supplied they don't but have still had to guarantee the work.

People baulk at paying £30 for a genuine Audi thermostat, which we know works 100% of the time, and prefer to pay £15 on a cheap Gates unit that we know definitely does not work 100% of the time, or nowhere near that in fact. That's human nature.

 

Yeah I agree, I would only use genuine parts. If it's for my own car, I can get bits at cost as my sister-in-law is service manager. This would obviously save me a fair bit of money & I know the quality of the parts will be spot on. Just need to find a specialist willing to do it with parts supplied. I don't mind but as it's only a 4th car, if I can spend that money on mods like suspension, wheels etc rather than just mark-up for the sake of it, it would be silly not to. £30 for a t-stat is dirt cheap. My dog wagon is a Hemi jeep & one or that was over £100 by the time it had been shipped from states, vat, import duty etc etc

 

Crikey. I can't imagine spending that sort of money on a car of that value. Not in one go, anyway. Kudos to you.

 

I presume you mean the 3.2 V6 BHE engine?

Local VAG indie wants £2k to do chains and DMF.

Sorry somehow missed your post. Yep 3.2. Where abouts are you based as was kinda budgeting for £1200-£1500 plus parts so around that

Always work on the theory of over service is better than repair bill

 

That quote was JKM in Portsmouth (respected VAG indie), I also considered Forcesreengineered in Andover run by an ex-Porsche master tech (a not-for-profit garage that rehabs ex-services with PTSD) gave a similar quote. I'm currently dragging the job out until mine reach -8 which hopefully occurs after my youngest finishes university.

 

I get mine back from the garage on Friday so will report back with costs and work carried out then.

 

Adam,

I'm in the same position. Once I begin getting engine lights on and VAG-COM tells me -8, -8 then its crunch time.

What will speed the wear on the chains up? Mine are -4, -5 at the moment.

Car isn't pushed and isn't ragged ever. The odd spurt here and there, but mostly it cruises nicely on the A roads I use.

 

Fair enough. If you don't mind letting me know what the bill is, it would be appreciated.

Is there a specific way of pulling the vag com readings? I've used measuring blocks 208 & 209 iirc but the readings state -10 on both whether the engine is running or not. This is clearly impossible & I have no codes or warning lights either so must be doing something wrong

 

it's a terrifying prospect along with DSG - the 3.2 have a grim reaper following them around

 

Blocks 208 & 209 are for the timing chain wear. G28 & G40 icor correlation fault was coming up on mine which highlighted the timing chain issue.

 

it's a terrifying prospect along with DSG - the 3.2 have a grim reaper following them around

Ha ha true but I've had a lotus exige & tvr Tuscan in the past so used to living on the edge lol. Exige once cost me £1100 just because I left the key in the ignition overnight & when it killed the battery, the car thought someone was trying to hit wire it so locked it down. At least for the timing chain I will feel like I'm getting some bang for my buck

 

Blocks 208 & 209 are for the timing chain wear. G28 & G40 icor correlation fault was coming up on mine which highlighted the timing chain issue.

Sorry I did mean 208 & 209 (not 108 & 209). Too many sausage rolls have given me fat thumbs for typing

 

https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=1836951

 

Interesting reading thanks. Mines always had the long life service at Audi so maybe it's the gunked up issues they talk about rather than chain. I will do some further digging

 

Is it a bad design or an abused engine that causes this. For years everyone says 'that's got a timing chain, you'll never need to change the timing belt' but then discover the Audi solution needs a £3k timing chain replacement after 105k miles instead of a £100 kit and 4 hours low impact labour every 75k miles.
When we had our 318is e36 that was a 1.9 16v with timing chain no issues at 160k, our 530 3.0litre straight 6 160k no issues 323 2.5litre straight 6 145k no issues.
I would expect premature timing chain wear with a 400 ft_lb turbo fitted.

 

emm this is going to test my memory. Friend had a high mileage Honda CB400N super dream anyhow I seem to remember an article on splitting the cam chain, joining a new chain, pulling it round and re-rivetting the new chain. Of course the tensioners remained which would be a problem.
My point is doing the above to a TT would mean you wouldn't need to take the engine out.
Please do not flame me as I'm just creating a discussion out of interest.

 

Just seems like an excuse as they can't put a mark up on to me

Bottom line is running a shop is absurdly expensive. If shops don't profit on parts AND labor, you can expect them to close their doors in a year or two. Find a good shop that is reputable and go in person and speak with a service advisor. Explain what you want and that you could get the parts and find a mechanic to put them on but you would like a quality job with a warranty. This will most likely lead to the SA quoting you a fair price for the parts and you'll get a warranty.

You want to buy your own parts, you do your own work! :mrgreen:

 

emm this is going to test my memory. Friend had a high mileage Honda CB400N super dream anyhow I seem to remember an article on splitting the cam chain, joining a new chain, pulling it round and re-rivetting the new chain. Of course the tensioners remained which would be a problem.
My point is doing the above to a TT would mean you wouldn't need to take the engine out.
Please do not flame me as I'm just creating a discussion out of interest.

If only it could be done this way.....we would all be very grateful.

I used this method to replace the centrally mounted timing chain on my old Yamaha Thundercat YZF600R years ago, dropping in new tensioner blades from above.

Sadly you cannot simply do it this way on the BHE 3.2 V6 engine as there are two timing chains, a lower one from crank to intermediate pulley midway up the engine block, and an upper chain from intermediate pulley to cam variable timing adjuster pulleys. Also lots of guide blades and tensioners to change which require flywheel removal to access, hence engine/gearbox needs splitting.

 

it's a terrifying prospect along with DSG - the 3.2 have a grim reaper following them around

I spoke to a guy a while back who had 178k on his 3.2 DSG when he sold it.

I'm more averse to the 1.8T manual with plumbing and boost leak woes, worn clutch plate expense, regular cambelt expense etc. Folk enjoy tuning them, I really couldn't be arsed with that myself.

I prefer a big lumbering semi-auto V6 anyday. Each to their own.

 

Pros & cons with both. I bought the v6 dsg knowing there could be issues further down the line but it's the unpredictability that's annoying, especially when in stock form & well maintained

 

2k is a good price, most places around me refuse to do it for fear of messing it up. Audi themselves refused to do it saying its a "non serviceable part" and never needs changing. I explained to them how to measure the stretch and tolerance but they wouldn't have any of it. (not that I'd use audi but was curious what they'd quote)

 

2k is a good price, most places around me refuse to do it for fear of messing it up. Audi themselves refused to do it saying its a "non serviceable part" and never needs changing. I explained to them how to measure the stretch and tolerance but they wouldn't have any of it. (not that I'd use audi but was curious what they'd quote)

2k to change a timing chain?
Might get the tools out of retirement for that.