Chains dont mean no maintainance.

Chains do have change intervals

Chains are more expensive to change

Fools folly to buy a 140k miles old chain driven engine and think its good for life cause its a chain

Chain slap is awesome. On a chain drive engine.

Re the MG above – HG was done after it started using water, by the owner who is a mechanic. Seems to know his stuff going by the message, but hmm.

The VW 1.8 20v has a belt from the crank pulley to one of the cam pulleys, then an internal chain from that cam to drive the other cam.

I’d like a CTR, but for 2k you’re looking right at the bottom of the market, for a car that’s likely to have had quite a hard life…

No chains in there just a belt. This is the 1.8 T 20v engine. The other camshaft might have a chain from the driven one but that won’t stop the pistons hitting the valves if that belt fails. As I said 60k change the belt and the water pump as that can fail and fling the belt off as it acts as a tensioner.

Have you thought about a fiesta ST. This has the mondeo 2.0l lump in it. Proper chain driven camshaft. Very reliable and very quick. Not Clio quick but a lot better built and reliable to boot. Very torquey engine and they handle very well. If I was in the market for a quick hatch of that era I would probably play it safe and go for the old shape Honda Type R in Silver. I like cars that rev.

Chains dont mean no maintainance.

Chains do have change intervals

Chains are more expensive to change

Fools folly to buy a 140k miles old chain driven engine and think its good for life cause its a chain

Chain slap is awesome. On a chain drive engine.

It’s funny, because I thought exactly that when I bought the car from Cheshire Oaks Audi. I asked what the service interval was (2010 1.8tfsi) on the chain.Their reply was that there isn’t one. The chain lasts the life of the engine.

The chain that drives the second camshaft maybe doesn’t need changing but the belt that drives the first camshaft from the crankshaft certainly will. Unless VW have redesigned that engine to run a chain from the crankshaft. I knows the 2.0 TSI engine runs a chain and there have been some issues with that in the past, don’t know if this has been fully sorted yet.

Life of engine being ….. When that chain expires your engines run out of life.

Anyway some audis are plagued with chain slap on start up when milage gets higher.

Life of engine being ….. When that chain expires your engines run out of life.

Anyway some audis are plagued with chain slap on start up when milage gets higher.

Not fussed about engine life really, i will only keep it 3 yrs, but service costs are reduced greatly due to no cambelt on the service schedule.

Have you considered a Xsara VTS, same 170bhp engine and chassis as the 306 Gti6 but with a 5 speed ‘box.
You can pick a late model (up to ’04) one up for less than 1k.

Having just had the Clio on track this morning – I can definitely still vouch for them!

Thought you might! I think you should try out one of those xsara vts’ just to confirm it. ;o)

monkeysfeet – Member

The chain lasts the life of the engine.

Chain in mine certainly will- I’m never going to change it, and if it breaks it’s not getting a new head put on it.

The camchains in my motorbike are supposed to be good for life but then I get the feeling Suzuki expected it to do 3000 miles a year for 5 years then get scrapped for being out of date

With that attitude might as well not bother changing cam belt anyway.

For the budget the op has anything audi will be coming into the will it wont it lunch its chain realms.

Think your bike chains worn after a couple of winters mtb. You want to see what the timing gears look like after 190k 🙂

Appears that VAG have made a 1.8 tfsi from 2010 with a 16valve chain driven camshaft. This is a new engine and bears no relation to the older 20v belt driven unit. Don’t think the OP’s budget will get anything of that age. My old Vrs was tuned and bloody quick in a straight line but the handling was truly awful. I would always go for handling over power every time, the Clio excels on both fronts. I always thought the Williams Clio’s would hold their value and become a bit of a collectors car.

trail_rat – Member

With that attitude might as well not bother changing cam belt anyway.

Nah, basically just down to lifespans- if I was convinced a cambelt was going to last as well as an average camchain, I’d not change that either.

Funny story on that.

My old boss had a dw8 same as me .

I change cam belt at 45-50 k/3 years and genuine waterpump every second belt.

My old boss ran his for 16 years and 170000miles on the original belt and pump. Its still going now.

Conversely i had an escort with 40k on the clock and when we changed the belt it was threadbare , didnt have many more revolutions left in it.

Update! I went to see some cars.

1. 2002 MG tf160

First impressions were good – pretty decent paintwork, almost no rust that I could see (a couple of patches of surface rust), very good tyres all round. The owner’s missus (he was asleep due to working nights) gave me the key and left me to have a poke around. Battery was on charge due to being in storage, but it started on the first time.

Fluid all good, all the bits in the front boot (is that what you call it?) were present and correct. Mistmatching doorhandles (one chrome, one plastic) didn’t look too good. Then I had a look inside and it all went a bit downhill.

Inside of the hood was mouldy, and there was a rather unpleasant fusty smell inside. Water on the passenger door, and a little bit in the driver’s footwell didn’t bode well. Also a bit more evidence of rust at the front of the sills where the doors hinge – not loads, but still. There were lots of bits of trim coming loose and a general feeling of meh-ness. Then I sat in it, and it went even more downhill.

Basically, I don’t fit in an MG. Even hunched down my head was squished against the frame of the roof. I took it for a quick spin up the road anyway, but even if the other faults hadn’t put me off already, there’s just no way I could have driven it any distance. Shame, because the engine seemed lovely (especially with a few revs) and there was definitely something special about having it singing away behind you. The gearshift needed some in put shall we say, the whole thing just felt a bit rattly and cheaply put together.

2. 2002 MK2.5 MX-5 Icon

After the MG, I was worried about fitting in the MX-5, so the first thing I did was sit in it. I fit fine; the top of my hair was just about brushing the bottom of the hood. Good start. I then had a good poke around the car. Not a spot of rust on the sills or arches as far as I could see, and I had a good grope around at the chassis rails and couldn’t find anything untoward there at all.

The owner of this one knew his stuff – he showed me all the drainage channels and the old aerial he used to clean them, as well as a bit stack of receipts for servicing and such. Cambelt done 17k ago and new Toyo Proxes about 6k ago. I honestly couldn’t find a fault with it – a few stone chips and scuffs as you’d expect on a car that age, and a bit of wear on the driver’s seat, but nothing to worry about.

Only had a very short spin in it, as it had no tax, but it felt completely different to the MG. The gearshift was the slickest I’ve ever used, it all felt really tight and well put together and a LOT more comfortable. Hood went down easy (and back up)… It was just alltogether a much nicer car.

The engines felt and sounded COMPLETELY different in the two cars; the MX was typically Japanese revvy and “buzzy” (not in a bad way!) sounding, whereas the MG felt a bit more agricultural, but did sound a bit meatier when the revs got up. If I’d fit in the MG I’d have been tempted to find some more to look at and see if I could find a better one, just for the engine.

I didn’t though, so I bought the MX-5. More updates to follow when I pick it up on Wednesday.

sounds to me like you bought the right car off the right kind of owner.

“the whole thing just felt a bit rattly and cheaply put together.”

describes every rover/mg ever built 😀 – i think thats why the enthusiasts love em.

Yeah I was expecting the MG to be a bit rattly, I used to have a Metro, I’d just hoped things might’ve come on a *little* bit. They haven’t!

I always think buying a second hand car is part about “interviewing” the owner, part having a good poke around and part “vibe” / luck.

Can’t wait to take it for a proper spin now, preferably with the hood down.

I didn’t though, so I bought the MX-5. More updates to follow when I pick it up on Wednesday.

Fantastic!

Heres what I did: Seat forward a notch- then recline the back alittle (fwd a notch/allows the seat to actually recline)- this worked for me (6ft2).

I also found being tall in this car you DONT need the drivers side sunvisor. Unscrewing that actually frees up an extra inch of windscreen. Doesn’t sound much but its alot/makes sense when you see the results.

Another thing- find a quite roundabout at night. One thats wide and smooth enough- go round it quickly and provoke the rear out- then lift off/steer into the slide. Just to get you used to a rear wheel slide 😀

“Another thing- find a quite roundabout at night. One thats wide and smooth enough- go round it quickly and provoke the rear out- then lift off/steer into the slide. Just to get you used to a rear wheel slid”

or try a large empty carpark away from the public road / people / other cars and road furniture.

not that i condone sliding but sometimes it just happens.

my old frontera was shocking for sliding on round abouts in the wet – provoked or not…even taking it canne it could give but knowing what to do if it snapped was invaluable.

That’s not a bad idea actually, I’m used to understeer on the Yaris (it had some horrific tyres that would push straight on at the slightest hint of trying to corner) but oversteer is a new, scary idea.

or try a large empty carpark away from the public road / people / other cars and road furniture.

The Manchester Velodrome carpark used to be good but then Security started popping out of nowhere and saying ‘oh no you don’t’! 😀

If a roundabout- Keep going round until you feel it sliding/feel what happens if you apply more throttle etc- doesn’t have to snap out for you to understand and be ready. Just make sure its not a tiny roundabout with big kerbs 😯

A good one was a two-parallel figure of 8 roundabouts under the M60 (Jct8 I think)- awesome fun 🙂

This thread has put a tear in my eye over my old Clio 182 Trophy #303/500.

The capsicum red colour, antrhacite alloys, recaro racing seats, brembo rakes, etc, etc, etc..

Oh Claudia, why did I let you go!