Mk 6 R chain tensioner

[andykram]

Forgive my ignorance but does the Mk6 R suffer the same disastrous chain tensioner problem that the GTi does/did? I'm looking to perhaps change the wife's hairdresser BMW for one of these.

My GTi was a 2009 model so I'm well familiar with the problems these early ones had and that by 2012 even the GTi was sorted with numerous revised tensioners. I also had in mind that the R's engine is not the same one from what I recall reading on here. Confirmation one way or the other though would be much appreciated though.

Having said all that, this R is still £23.5k so I'm struggling to justify it at this price despite its being very well loaded with Dynaudio, DSG, Adaptive chassis, 510 and leather. 33k on the clock. Thoughts?

[Booth11]

Not sure if the Mk6 R had the same timing chain issues.  But it has the EA113 engine and K04 turbo, opposed to the M6 GTI which has the EA888 engine and IHI turbo.  The Ed35 has the same engine as the R.

[andykram]

Yep, the EA113 is what I remember being the difference. And I don't recall reading anything about those engines going bang. Just wanted absolute confirmation before going any further with this R enquiry
I'm not going back to the "Russian Roulette" scenario I had with the GTi every time you switched the engine on waiting to see if it was going to go bang!!

[Gaz-M]

No the EA113 is the TFSI engine and has a timing belt not chain.

[andykram]

Which presumably means they're a lot more robust?

[Gaz-M]

It means you dont need to worry about the timing chain tensioner..

Golf R is a TFSI with a belt, same engine as older S3, MK5 GTI Edition 30 etc.

Mk6 GTI is a TSI engine, which is chain driven and suffers from the tensioner failure.

[Snoopy]

Just listen out for squeak ing belt tensioner and rattling cam follower.
Also test the haldex actually works!

[andykram]

Cheers for all the replies. In the end we've decided not to pursue the car. I just can't justify a £23k purchase on an obsolete 3 year old model, no matter how well specced it is. There are loads of Mk7 GTis out there now for that price and I can still PCP a Mk7 R for less than £400 a month.
I think we are going to wait til the new year and wait for the 40th anniversary model, take a look at that and make a decision then - it just seems the sensible thing to do.

[Gaz-M]

Or hope the R400 comes out