If you have a chain, rather than a belt, in your car engine – does it need changing after x miles / years on a schedule? Looking for a definitive answer for a 2015 skoda superb. The bloke I bought it from said no, because it’s a chain, but used car salesman often speak with forked tongue.

They should last a very long time but can need changing eventually. Unlike a belt you should get a bit of warning once it starts to “stretch”. I’d be very surprised if a 2015 car needed it doing, unless it was a taxi. In a well serviced car I expect the chain would outlast the rest of the car in most circumstances

Had to do the chain on my 2010 Skoda Fabia after 30,000 miles. Its a known fault with this engine apparently. You could check on briskoda.net to see if there are any known issues with the Superb.

You should google vw tsi timing chain.
Basically the chains are actually ok, but the tensioner isn’t really up to the job.
Briskoda have a massive thread about it.

My 06 Corsa went to about 150k on the original chain before I sold it.

Basically the chains are actually ok, but the tensioner isn’t really up to the job.

That’s a pretty common issue with chain drives. Porsche 911 was a classic example. Chains last forever, but the tensioners had loads of issues.

It’s a definite issue with the 1.8/2.0 tsi engines, a mate of mine is a skoda mechanic and he said the failure rate is so small (as a percentage of engines built) that it’s basically down to luck if your one fails.
Lack of servicing doesn’t seem to be the issue, most of the failures are fully dealer serviced cars.

As well as those above there are well publicised issues with the 1.6 Citroen engine (as used in the Mini Cooper S) and with the Vauxhall 2.2 (in that case it was oil jet gunking up and there was a replacement larger bored jet that could be fitted).

Chains work well with perfect lubrication and tension but, as on a bike, have a lot of moving parts which will eventually wear out. Issue then is because most were designed to last for the life of an engine (which over time was found to not always be the case) there was not necessarily a consideration for chain replacement.

Similar issues coming out with the ‘wet’ belt driven Ford Ecoboost engines now, designed to be sealed for life without consideration for a belt change – yet they can need doing at under 100k miles if oil, filter, driving style etc. results in wear. How you know without it snapping I am not sure.

Just had the chain,sprockets and tensioners changed in our Trafic. Glad we did looking at the old ones.

Ive recently had the camchain and tensioners changed on our (from new) 50k golf 1.4tsi

it rattled at startup. apparently the timing was out as well (funny that)

i didnt want to spend the money but all the internet scared me into doing it. It turned out it needed doing quite badly.

vw wanted 2-3k for it!

The BMW N47 engine had some premature failures, not helped any by the 20k+ mile oil change interval they used to promote the cars to fleet operators. BMW classed it as a “lifetime” item. In effect this is a self-fulfilling prophecy because the failures are so expensive that’s probably the lifetime of your car over when it happens.
That said, I saw 150k out of the chain on a Primera and 140k out of the chain on a Duratec Mondeo without any issues, and it wasn’t the chain that saw either of them off in the end. And my E91’s on 140k, so coming up to the 150k BMW regard as “lifetime”!

VW have been using chains for decades.

A failure is very rare, aside from ‘known fault’ type situations, but it will usually write off the engine if it goes (usually because it will be an old car by then) but they can go on rattling away for years without breaking.

The problem tends to be that they’re ‘lifetime’ parts, which sounds great. You never have to change a belt which makes servicing cheaper. Unfortunately ‘lifetime’ to a manufacturer unofficially is about 100k miles and 10 years and the real downside is they’re usually a complete pig to do.

I’ve only done one myself on an old Golf VR6 the chain on those is between the block and the gearbox and you’ve got to strip tonnes of stuff off to get at it. The bits are cheap though.

They generally sound a bit rough / rattly as idle

The one on my old Transit was fine after 140k miles.
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The one on the wife’s 2009 BMW 318 is being changed as we speak, at 50k miles. It’s jumped a tooth somehow (crappy plastic guide deep in the bowls of the engine somewhere) but you just get a warning light rather than a catostrophic failure like the belt one which wrote off my Mondeo. Best part of £800 mind, it’s not an easy to get to item. (Is that the N47 Jonners mentioned?)
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Regular oil changes keep the tensioners happy on most engines
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So to answer the question, usually much less frequently than a belt, but a PITA if it does need done.

They are designed to last the life of the vehicle.

However some have design faults….

VW went back to belts on the EA211 TSI engines ~2013 after the earlier TSI chain debacle.

They aren’t service items, no. However like anything else they can wear or fail.

That’s a pretty common issue with chain drives. Porsche 911 was a classic example. Chains last forever, but the tensioners had loads of issues.

They did sort it out with the last air cooled ones thou and went onto to invent even more expensive and common issues on the later water cooled ones 🙁

They are designed to last the life of the vehicle.

Life of the PCP more likely :-p

182k and counting from my civic on the original chain. As above if there is an issue it’s usually not catastrophic unlike a belt but life of the chain can vary significantly between manufacturers.