Wifes Fault!!!, Snapped off chain guide p0016

[pilchard]

My wife was driving or starting car when the CEL came on. She said it made no funny noises. I checked and it had a P0016 and takes about twice as long to start. Thought I'd remove the top timing cover for a look and the chain guide between the two cams had snapped off!!! Any ideas what would cause this? Is it normal? It's a 2009 1.8 tfsi A3

 

[pilchard]

A pic

 

[Stokka]

jesus christ, i wouldn't have any idea what caused it, it doesn't seem possible. Is it gonna need a whole new rocker cover ?

 

[pilchard]

jesus christ, i wouldn't have any idea what caused it, it doesn't seem possible. Is it gonna need a whole new rocker cover ?

Yup, managed to fish all the bits out using a brush with bluetack on the end but I thinks it's gona need a new cover as a repair could be off slightly or fragile. Don't want to just slap on a new one without knowing what caused it tho, just to happen again, bearing in mind it did have a p0016 (intake cam timing) code and taking longer to start. But maybe this was due to a big chunk of plastic jamming the variable cam???. I gave it all a spin round using the crank and the chain doesn't seem to be jumping off the gears, I don't seem to have any markings or different coloured links on the chain tho.