GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk5 => Topic started by: PhilMill on 17 July 2017, 21:14
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Hi all, I've put a deposit on an 06 GTI, 76k miles and all the extras, its a lovely car and drives well. I since read all the horror stories of the cam chain tensioners. Is the anyway to know if the tensioner has been changed? apart from an Invoice which there isn't... I am worried about buying the car now, but it ticks all the boxes for me.
Thanks and hopefully i'll be around here soon.
PS, I have searched this but can't find an answer.
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If it's an '06 car, it'll be a mk5 Golf GTI, not a mk6 (the mk6 Golf was introduced in the U.K. In early 2009). The mk5 Golf GTI has a rubber cam belt, not a timing chain; see discussion thread below;
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=106561.0
Not sure what the intervals are for changing the cam belt (or the cost) on the mk5 GTI, but if there's no evidence of it having been done in the service history, I'd get it done, along with the idler/relay rollers and the tensioning roller. Probably worth getting the water pump changed at the same time.
If you're in the process of buying the car, if it's from a dealer, I'd get them to do it as part of the deal before you pick up the car. If it's a private sale, then use this as a bargaining tool to adjust the price.
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an '06 on 76k should have had the cam belt changed by now (60k or 5 years is the rule i go by). There is a cam chain/tensioner setup on the gearbox side of the engine but that isn't technically a servicable item and isn't anywhere near as prone to failure as the main timing chain tensioner on the later mk6 engines. You change it when it needs it, usually they get noisy first. Chain and tensioner unit rough price around £350 fitted, a high miler may well need the adjuster unit and housing too which bumps up the cost to around the £800 mark.