Legal rights on faulty timing chains?

Nuttyfox

Hi fellow forumers(?),

I've got a 57 plate yaris and my local garage is telling me the engine light is on because the timing chain is stretched. They can't say for sure without dismantling the entire engine which is a five hour job costing hundreds. What I'm curious about is, shouldn't a timing chain last for the life of the car (3 x as long as a timing belt, which is why they use them?) or at least 10 years?

There's 63,000 on the clock and the car is just 6 years old (timing belts need replacing at 7 years or 70,000) so I'm wondering if anyone has ever had the issue and am I covered by sale of goods act as a faulty chain is surely a manufacturing fault this early in the car's life. (Car has full Toyota service history).

Any advice appreciated?

Thanks,

Nutty

Stoke

The timing chain can theoretically last the lifetime of the car, depending on how long it runs for, regardless it should definitely last longer than 63k miles.

Ebe_Scrooge

I doubt you'd have any comeback. Chains do last longer than belts, but they're still a "wearable" item. You say the manufacturer recommends changing at 70K miles, and your car has done 63K ? That means you're pretty close to the recommended life of the chain, and these are guidelines only - there are a multitude of factors that will affect the actual wear and tear that's taken place. Much like a belt, one belt may snap after 30K miles, another car will do 100K without a belt change. It's the luck of the draw to a certain extent, recommendations as to frequency of change can only ever be based on averages.

The only recourse you *may* possibly have is if, say, the chain was changed recently and has gone after only a few thousand miles. That may reasonably indicate a faulty part. But from what you've described, I would say it's just reached the end of its natural life.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but I think that's the fact of the situation

jase1

That said, Toyota are far more likely than most other manufacturers to look after you in instances like this... I'd have a polite word with the dealer (not laying down the law) and see what they come back with.

If it had been a European brand you'd have no chance, but Toyota are better than that, or at least many owners have found that to be the case.

societys_child

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

You say the manufacturer recommends changing at 70K miles, and your car has done 63K ? That means you're pretty close to the recommended life of the chain

No, the op said

timing belts need replacing at 7 years

Chains should last much longer.

Mankysteve

societys_child wrote: »

No, the op said

Chains should last much longer.

They should last a long as the manufacture recommends changing them which is 70,000 or 7 years.

All failures fall on bell curve

Some will fail before there time some will last longer.

At the moment op you don't even know if that's your fault. As others have said Toyoto have pretty good customer services get in touch with them first and go from there.

Iceweasel

With a complete Toyota service history you should get some goodwill out of them. Toyota are known for treating their customers better than most.

Yes - chains should last the life of the engine.

Try a google search for BMW N47 chain problem to see what their response is to a similar problem on their most popular engine fitted to over 30 different models across their range.

Good luck.

Nuttyfox

Great advice all! Thank you!

I've written to Toyota to see where I stand - it's just the £500 cost of investigating the chain when it might turn out to be fine. I'll see what Toyota come back with.

Cheers!

societys_child

Mankysteve wrote: »

They should last a long as the manufacture recommends changing them which is 70,000 or 7 years.

NO, the manufacturer does NOT recommend this. Suggest you read the op again, carefully this time.

The manufacturer recommends that belts are changed at 70k / 7yrs

Nowhere does it say that chains should be changed at this mileage or age.
The whole point of the thread is, how much longer should chains last.

scaredofdebt

Generally speaking chains should last as long as the engine, although that's pretty obvious as if the chain fails, so will the engine (usually).

I've never known a manufacturer recommend a chain be replaced, unlike a belt.

I had a belt snap on my Vauxhall Corsa at around 36k, car was just out of warranty but Vauxhall agreed to pay 75% of the cost to fix the problem.

I'd certainly expect a chain to last 100k miles plus if the car was looked after and not abused.

mrmot

Is it a 1.3 petrol engine, with code K3VE, 16 valves and variable valve timing (VVT)? Is it popping on the engine light and flagging up a VVT error? I think that there's a gauze filter in the oil supply for the VVT mechanism that gets restricted over time, cutting the oil supply to the VVT so that the timing change is less than expected by the ECU which then flags up the error. Might be worth investigating this first rather than the chain as it's a lot easier and cheaper.