Timing Chain Replacement? Your thoughts?

[Novice 23]

I have a 2011 Volkswagen Passat V6 FSI Highline and recently had the Check Engine Light come on. Aside from the light coming on, it drove perfectly normal.

A day or two after however, it had a rough idle on start up, was sluggish, lost power and then ultimately went into limp mode (it wouldn't go over 30kmh). I pulled over, turned it off and back on- it got out of limp mode, was kinda sluggish but a bit better. I haven't really driven it since (except to a mechanic) but note the following:

OBDII scanner brought up the following error codes:
- P2293 (Fuel Pressure Regulator B Performance)
- P0302 (Cylinder 2 Misfire Detected)
- P0441 (EVAP System Incorrect Purge Flow)

Took it to a mechanic who was nice enough to diagnose it for me. They didn't have time to pinpoint to exact fault (were backlogged with work) but noted the following error codes:
- P0088 (Fuel Rail/ System Pressure Too High)
- P0087 (Fuel Rail/ System Pressure Too Low)
- P0300 & P0302 (Misfires)
- P0507 (Idle Control System RPM Higher than expected)
- P0441 (EVAP Emission Control Sys - Incorrect Flow)

Mechanic Notes:
- Possible faulty high pressure pump or camshaft timing out.
- Chains are noisy on start up.
- Said timing chain would most likely have to be changed.

My questions:
- Does the timing chain seem like the most likely culprit or is it likely to be something else?
- If it is the timing chain, what is a reasonable cost to have it replaced at a mechanic?
- Any recommendations for a Melbourne Mechanic to do the job?

Apologies for the long post and if I have missed anything obvious. I'm new to this.

[kamold]

Need to check the measuring values for cam phase. They will give a good idea if there is something going on with the chains/guides.

With those faults I could hazard a guess that the plastic guide next to the HPFP cam follower has failed and the chain is now being held in place with the metal guide pin only.
The HPFP is now no longer in time with the rest of the engine which causes the fuel pressure faults and misfires.
The extra travel now in the upper chain gives you the rattly noises.

Timing chains and guides replacement highly likely the solution. But I would first confirm the cam phase values. If either are greater than +/- 5 or the total spread is more than 8 it's another sign that something is up with the timing gear.

[MIG]

I have been gearing up to do this; they all will need to do it at some point.

I think OEM parts are about $500 for the chains, guides and bolts, then labour on top of that, the transmission needs to be dropped, so a fair amount of time goes into the job.
Also, a good shop should drop the oil pan and clean the oil pick-up from the broken pieces of the guide.

If my plan to DIY it falls through, I was going to take mine to Volkwerke; the guys there know what they are doing with the VR6s

[Novice 23]

Thanks kamold and MIG for your replies. I have requested a quote from Vokswerke.... hopefully I wont fall over when I get it.

[prn31]

I did the timing chains at the beginning of the year at 177,000km. My chains had the start up rattle for years and Alfredo from Muller & Muller kept on saying they needed to be replaced from at least a couple of years. I did check the cam phasing parameters on OBDEleven and they were right on 5 degrees, so I thought it best to do this,

I go most of the parts from FCP Euro in the States - their timing chain kit, main oil seal and rocker cover gasket - that came to $780, I didn't get the brake pump gasket or inlet manifold gaskets - so I paid through the nose for those parts here - $290. Alfredo's labour was $2,000 - so it was about $3,100 all up, which I thought was fair.

However Alfredo told me the rocker cover was warped and would leak oil into the head. Sure enough, I soon had a misfire, which meant I needed to order a new rocker cover, this time from Pelican Parts - not OEM but still German - for about $200 (over $600 here). I also needed a new coil and spark plug as they were wrecked by the oil. At local prices this was expensive - the total bill was about $800, which included labour. I saved the old PCV as it is only a matter of time before PCV in the new rocker cover fails... I will also get a spare set of coils from the States soon.

[3C4M Guy]

Circling back to the original question by Novice 23, my timing chains required replacement due to being stretched many years ago when the car had done only 65,000 km. The tensioner was also over-extended. At that time, the car produced this DTC:
P0016 / 00022 Crankshaft Position - Camshaft Position, Correlation Bank 1 Sensor A

So based on my experience my thought is that if your camshaft is not correctly timed to the crankshaft, then you might get a similar error code. However I'm no expert!

[kahusamuraijoe]

I had my timing chain skip a tooth or two (luckily no major damage) Getting it done now and also putting in a new clutch while its all open since i have 186k on my car. I am in Boronia, i got 1 quote for 7.5k + gst to do timing chain only( a bit of a rip off). I wont say who or where, then i got another quote for around 5. I can let you know what my bill is when i pick up the car tomorrow 28/08/24. As to what you need on your car i can't say. All i can say is shop around for a price.

[garronleslie]

Please do let us know what the bill is.
My car gets serviced at Volkwerke, but it is expensive, coz they are good.
Curious to see what your bill comes to, as mine has 178K’s and a little noisy at cold start.