First Post - same sorry story
59 Plate GTI 47,000 FVWSH No Mods
Engine died at Easter - recovered to VW in Cambridge - Timing chain tensioner had failed. Initially told £6500 to replace the engine. I haggled to £3500 then finally was offered £1500.
The breakdown between parts and labour was a bit of a three card trick but basically I was told VW would pay 100% parts and I was paying for labour. I showed them the TSB and the list of problems others on this site had reported, but could not get them to budge. They claimed to have never heard of the problem before
...
Pretty ticked off with VW in general after this - it's obviously a common failure and VW are trying to minimise their cost by haggling each case individually rather than any consistent response.
I've written to VW Customer services but having paid them now I'll not be holding my breath.
Thank you to everyone on this site - I'd have been much less prepared without all this info.