3.2 L Timing Chain Replacement

[Dd416865]

Hi all, new to this forum. Hoping someone can answer a few questions. So the car has 107k mi or 170k kms. Started getting the dreaded cold start noise a few months ago. Phoned my mechanic and was given the bad news about the timing chain requiring replacement. I brought it in today for a vagcom scan to confirm the problem and make sure there were no other major issues with "check engine light" on. All was as expected. Guy reset the computer and drove all day without light returning. Engine start noise only happens at colder than 32f or 0c.

1. Does the light out after reset indicate the problem is not that far advanced? I was hoping to use this car for a 2k highway trip but obviously don't want to make issue worse by having jumped chain or broken chain.

2. Mechanic is quoting 4500-5k to fix. What are folks in other areas paying for this repair? I'm in Canada and curious what this would cost in other cities or south of the border.

thanks so much all!!

[GOODBYNAAIR]

I have not had my done mine, and hopefully I will not need it. But 4-5k sounds about it right. It's a big job as the chains are on that back of the engine.

[doctorul_doc]

It sound about right but will only do the timing chain, nothing else. The engine will need to be pulled out for this. I am in US and was quoted about the same. I decided to do it myself and cost me only $1500 in parts to do all chains and a bunch of other basic maintenance (new water pump, oil pump rebuild, clean valves, clean injectors, replace PCV valve, rebuild high pressure pump, new thermostat, replace some coolant lines, replaced some broken connectors, new oil cooler, new belt, new belt tensioner, a bunch of gaskets including griddle and oil panel) while I had the engine out.