longlife- cam chain

[briskmedal_3]

Hi,

Looking to buy either an A5 or A4 3.0 tdi.

Found one with service history intervals as:

4000
25000
46000
67000
83000
95000
103000

Its a 2010 car. Is the service history a cause for concern, would this cause issues with the chain? I will be changing intervals to every 10k. Its a CCW engine.

Any help would be much appreciated

 

[NHN]

Service history looks fine, as its been longlife 20k by those numbers.

 

[Gazwould]

Not a fan of the first three services .

Does it rattle from cold start up ?

 

[desertstorm]

The chain isn't the issue it's the tensioners. If the car was doing a lot of mileage on the motorway over the first two services it's not as bad as doing say 16K miles of short stop start journeys. @bobby singh has loads of experience with these.

 

[Gazwould]

That's right it's poor oil quality and mega stop starts that wears the priming ability of the tensioner .

Stretched or worn chains are uncommon .

 

[pelhamsdetailing]

Have a listen to it on a cold startup if possible. If it rattles for a short 1-2 seconds and then goes quiet as it comes to life, it's likely fine and not worth worrying about on that basis.

 

[briskmedal_3]

The chain isn't the issue it's the tensioners. If the car was doing a lot of mileage on the motorway over the first two services it's not as bad as doing say 16K miles of short stop start journeys. @bobby singh has loads of experience with these.

Thanks for that.
Would it be worth changing the tensioners then, even if theres no noise?

 

[Gazwould]

I too have another make of car plagued with timing chain tensioner issues but not a hint of chain rattle not even after an oil change .

I change oil often and permanently disabled the stop strain .

If it ain't broke don't fix it , in this case .

 

[jdp1962]

I too have another make of car plagued with timing chain tensioner issues but not a hint of chain rattle not even after an oil change .

I change oil often and permanently disabled the stop strain .

If it ain't broke don't fix it , in this case .

Stop start?

 

[Gazwould]

Its definitely Stop Strain as it's a wrecking ball.

 

[jdp1962]

Its definitely Stop Strain as it's a wrecking ball.