Merkin

at least chains are good for almost indefinately

YukonAudi

No fools put that together

nuugen

As evidenced in the VW VR6 motor...VW engineers created a chain/system to replace the venerable belt design...There were a few reasons: The timing assembly had to be relocated to the bellhousing area to make the 6 more compact..Also, a timing chain has a longer service life than a belt, so pulling the tranny every 40-50k was not going to be necessary---the idea was to check/replace the chains when doing a clutch replacement, as you have to remove the tranny anyway..
HOWEVER! the plastic material for the tensioners was not of a good quality, and early VR6 owners found out the hard way when the lower tensioners began crumbling away and the chains started rubbing against the rivets and metal backing area...If not detected in time, the chains would eventually snap leading to disastrous results!!
I believe that VW/Audi is now using a better plastic composite (nylon maybe?) to alleviate this issue..

CvTech

I just thought it was too obvious

YukonAudi

I'm a sucker for that kind of lead in...

RxFX101

then timing is off. at least on american motors. maybe the audi has some sort of tensioner to make up for it.

Merkin

seen too many 200k toyota chains