Greetings! Newbie to this group, oldie to grease under the nails........

A 2010 Civic Hybrid appeared in my driveway and my wife's car disappeared........ apparently her car is being held ransom until this Civic is healed...... about 200K miles on the car and it has been "driven until it drops" .......not by my choice....or hands..... Bogs and hesitates on acceleration. Hybrid model with 1.3L dual plug head.

I can't do the work on this car so had a shop do some diagnostics on it. I did an initial "rotation" check on the crank, to see how much play is in the chain as this was still flagged as something that needs replacing on these cars, yet I can find no direct posts about this....ie myth or real. My "feel" was that there is a lot of movement before resistance to the cam...but, not knowing much about these engines and what the cam tensioners feel like when activated....I'm out in the dark.

I know that Ford SOHC motors can go 200K+ on their chains and tensioners.....but how about a 1.3L Civic?

So the shop checked the CEL codes and pulled the COP's and plugs. Still had original plugs.....like I said, driven until it dropped....(into my driveway!) Several of the COP's are toast with white charred boots, cracked plastic.....pretty ugly.

I have 8 plugs, 4 NGK COPS and 4 Beck Arnley boot kits for now on order with Rock Auto.....half the price of my local AP store for the same stuff.....but takes a couple of days longer to get them... Availability of 8 of either of these coil pieces was bad.....so must be popular problem areas!!!

The guys at the shop haven't heard much at all about bad chains in the small engines. Belts yes.

SO, I figured I'd check with the experts on this matter, to see if I can find a way to externally determine if the shop needs to dive in deeper and replace the chain/tensioners, which I have new already....sitting in the car. If they can replace the chain while we wait for parts, and have that done.....it would be a better use of time..... Kinda backwards, but I have no experience with these cars......cuz I coulda/woulda done the coils/plugs first....not last! Duh!

Any help here would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Steve