Yesterday, I experienced a problem with my car that resulted in a message to stop the engine which I did immediately. Today I went to see the car at the mechanic's place and was shown what had caused the problem. The tensioner had worked itself loose and the plastic tensioners around the timing chain had broken into several pieces. There is a slight language barrier in that the mechanic is French and doesn't speak English and although I can speak some French, it is not garage French. In order to fix the problem I have been told that I need to order some parts. These are:

Timing chain
Two gaskets for the rockers
Plastic tensioning parts

I have looked on the internet but I am unsure about how many timing chains there are and how many plastic tensioners there are. I do not require the two rocker chains (one for each group of four cylinders). I understand there might be up to four plastic tensioners but I have only found one on the Island 4x4 website and that is for cylinders 1-4. It looks to be quite a big job as the sump needs to be removed to find the broken bits of plastic and the front of the car needs removing to get at the timing chain. The mechanic is estimating the job will take up to 40 hours to complete.

What I am asking is how many of the parts above are required for the job? The car is an October 2003 Vogue, 4.4 V8 (BMW engine). Would the parts be cheaper to purchase through BMW?

Regards,

Steve