You have been had. I hope you didnt pay out of pocket for this.

 

yea i paid out of pocket with 74k on the car. sounded kinda nuts and i shoulda had the fore thought to ask for the chain back but im a moron. Which they probably saw it coming lol

 

I pulled my old chain that has gone through 3 TCTs vs a brand new chain and there was a visable difference in lenght when I hung both around a level pin.. Maybe eigth to quarter inch..

 

Hmm sounds pretty significant to me. Probably other signs that you could only detect through metalurgical means

 

Yup, that's chain stretch. Happens to all chains.

I find it interesting, though, that Honda did not publish a service interval for the chain or a spec limit for chain stretch. At least, they didn't in my Helm manual.

The longer a chain is used on a particular set of gears, the more those gears wear in response to the chain stretch. On a bicycle, if you let your chain go too long between replacements you need to replace the gear cogs too.

Of all the things I could worry about in my engine, though, the life of the timing chain is way, way down on the list.