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You can assess the cam chain on engines with an automatic cam chain tensioner using the same approach as the manual tensioner; a small mirror inserted into the timing inspection cover will (awkwardly) give you a view of the mechanism. If you can see a hole like this:
...it's beyond the time to replace the cam chain. At this point you should be hearing an abnormal noise from the engine - and probably for a while beforehand. The tensioner in the image above is fully extended. Running with a fully extended cam chain can cause the chain to hammer the tensioner and damage or destroy it, and they're no longer available...
The automatic tensioner setup has less tension range than the manual, as a point of interest. The distance from the tip of the tensioner to the beginning of that hole?
~21.5mm.
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