zrickety
The Fixer
We bought the wife an 09 Mini Cooper S for driving to work. It's a fun little car with 94k. Coincidentally, they also have timing chain tensioner and water pump issues. BMW/Mini just recently decided to recall affected cars, so ours goes in next week for almost $3k worth of repairs. I didn't expect the car to be covered, pretty awesome. From what I've read, most cars need new timing chains and guides too, they replace it all. I was ready to put in an updated tensioner (which just screws in from outside the engine!) but am going to let them go the extra mile. I'll get a loaner for 2 days while they do the work. I know tensioner failure is rare on our cars, but it sure would be nice if VW stepped up like this.