If you live in Forest Row and your BMW or Ford has started rattling on cold mornings, you don’t need to drag it to a main dealer in Crawley or Tunbridge Wells. Our workshop sits on Cottage Place in Copthorne, roughly nine miles north-west of the village via the A22 and East Grinstead — a twenty-minute hop for most RH18 drivers. Don’t fancy the trip? We’ll collect for free.
Timing Chain Gatwick is a specialist workshop. We don’t do MOTs, brakes or general servicing. What we do, every day, is replace failing timing chains on BMW diesels and petrols, and wet belts on Ford EcoBoost and EcoBlue engines.
Why Forest Row drivers choose Timing Chain Gatwick
Forest Row is a small village with a lot of cars per household — school runs to Michael Hall, commutes up to the Lingfield line, weekend drives across Ashdown Forest. When a chain or wet belt fails it fails badly, and a franchised dealer bill can be eye-watering.
- Genuine OEM parts only — the same chains, guides, tensioners and wet belts as the factory used, never pattern kits.
- Free collection within fifteen miles — Forest Row, Hartfield and Ashurst Wood all sit inside that radius.
- Fixed-price quotes before any work starts — no mid-job calls adding hundreds.
- Twelve-month warranty on parts and labour.
- One job, every day. Our technicians have stripped your engine more times this year than most garages have in their careers.
If you’d like a number to work to first, request a free estimate and we’ll reply the same working day.
Forest Row cars and vans we work on
Drive around the village on a Saturday morning and you’ll see the usual Sussex mix — Range Rovers, BMW X1s and X3s on the school run, Ford Kugas and Focuses outside the shops on Hartfield Road, and Transit vans on every other driveway. A lot of these engines are known for chain or wet-belt trouble.
- BMW N47 (2.0 diesel, 2007–2014) — 118d, 120d, 320d, 520d, X1, X3. Famous for rear chain failure.
- BMW N57 (3.0 six-cylinder diesel) — 330d, 530d, X5, X6. Same rear chain layout, same rattle.
- BMW B47 (2.0 diesel from around 2014) — improved over the N47 but showing wear on higher-mileage cars now.
- BMW N20 and B58 petrols — 320i, 328i, 520i and newer six-cylinder petrols. The N20 has a known chain guide problem.
- Ford 1.0 EcoBoost — Fiesta, Focus, EcoSport, B-Max, C-Max, Puma. The wet belt sits in oil and breaks down over time.
- Ford 1.5 and 2.0 EcoBlue diesels — Focus, Kuga, Mondeo, Galaxy, S-Max, Transit, Transit Custom, Ranger.
For detail, see BMW timing chain repairs, our Ford service page, the 1.0 EcoBoost wet belt page and the EcoBlue wet belt page. Transit owners should see our Transit EcoBlue page.
Free collection from RH18
Cottage Place to Forest Row, via Felbridge and East Grinstead, is about nine miles, so RH18 collections are well within our free range. We regularly pick cars up from:
- Forest Row village — off Hartfield Road, Lewes Road or around the Squash Club
- Ashurst Wood, just north in RH19
- Hartfield (TN7) — including the lanes near the Pooh Sticks bridge and Cotchford
- Wych Cross and the A22 cottages heading towards Nutley
- Coleman’s Hatch and Chuck Hatch on the Ashdown Forest side
- Hammerwood and the hamlets towards Holtye
If the car still drives, one of our team will collect it on a pre-arranged morning and drop it back when it’s done. If it won’t start at all, let us know and we’ll arrange recovery instead. Either way, ring 01342 643 780 or email info@timingchaingatwick.co.uk.
Warning signs to act on
The classic early symptom — particularly on N47 and N57 BMWs — is a diesel rattle on cold start that lasts a couple of seconds and disappears. You notice it most on a frosty morning before you’ve reversed off the drive. It’s the chain slapping worn guides before oil pressure builds. Ignored for long enough, the guides shatter, the chain jumps, and you’re looking at bent valves and a destroyed cylinder head.
- A metallic rattle, jangle or "sewing machine" noise from the rear of a BMW diesel, especially when cold
- A light tapping or whirring from the timing cover on N20 petrols
- Engine management codes around camshaft/crankshaft correlation (P0016, P0017, P0018, P0019)
- Low oil pressure warnings, or the oil light flickering at idle
- On 1.0 EcoBoost Fiestas and Focuses: rough running, misfires, oil consumption, or black belt debris on the filler cap or dipstick
- On EcoBlue Transits and Kugas: rattling from the timing cover, loss of power, or a sudden no-start
If any of those sound familiar, the honest advice is to stop driving the car and book it in. A chain job is a serious bill, but it’s a fraction of what a new engine costs — and the longer it’s left, the more likely you are to need both.
Costs and what’s involved
We won’t put guess-prices here — every job differs and we don’t believe in bait numbers. What we will do is give you a written, fixed quote up front, based on your registration, mileage and a quick chat about the symptoms. No surprises later.
For most BMW N47 and N57 jobs the engine and gearbox come out so the rear chain can be reached — a long day’s work, plus genuine BMW chain, guides, tensioner and gaskets. We always fit the full kit; a new chain against worn guides is false economy. On the Ford wet-belt side, we drop the sump, clear the rubber debris from the oil pickup, clean the internals and fit a new belt, tensioner and oil pump where required.
Most cars are with us for two to three working days. You’ll get a call when it’s stripped down, and another when it’s road-tested, then it comes home with a twelve-month parts-and-labour warranty.
Book your Forest Row collection
If you’re in RH18 with a BMW that’s started rattling or a Ford that’s overdue its wet belt, the quickest way to a sensible answer is to talk to us. Call 01342 643 780 between 9am and 6pm Monday to Saturday, email info@timingchaingatwick.co.uk, or use the contact form. The free estimate form takes a minute to fill in.
Other areas we cover
Forest Row sits at the southern edge of our catchment. See the full list on our areas we cover page, or jump to one of these: