165k mile old cam follower and innovative way to open the banjo bolt.

[Choudhry98]

Hello, everyone. This is my first post and the first job I've done on my new (to me) MK5 GTI. I have a folder full of service history but cam follower has never been changed so I gave it a go. Took me a whole day and a trip to Halfords and Eurocarparts.

Here are pictures of the what the cam follower looked like:


Do you guys reckon there are bits of cam follower in my engine?

I also couldn't get a tool to take out the banjo bolt and the frustration was getting to me. I thought there must be a way to get my M8 spline to it, lo and behold I found a way. It involved disconnecting the PCV pipe that ran through there. I had about 2cm where I could twist my tool thing and it was enough. Probably still worth doing a banjo delete. Here are the pics of how I got it:





I've circled where I've removed the pcv hoses from and where they are now.



Let me know yours guys thoughts 

[pudding]

Have a close look at the cam lobe. Once the follower wears through, the pump piston starts gouging it.  If that has happened, the cam will need replacing as it will just chew through the new follower and you won't have enough pump lift, so might run into fuel rail pressure issues in boost.

Might be worth removing the cam sensor. Chances are it will be covered in swarf from the worn down cam follower.

[Clarkj93]

I think you're unlucky with that cam follower, there are extreme examples out there that look like that but I've never actually known anyone else to find one like you did. Mine was only changed after 10 years initially and it was at the end of its life for sure but it was still intact and still flat bottomed.

[Choudhry98]

Have a close look at the cam lobe. Once the follower wears through, the pump piston starts gouging it.  If that has happened, the cam will need replacing as it will just chew through the new follower and you won't have enough pump lift, so might run into fuel rail pressure issues in boost.

Might be worth removing the cam sensor. Chances are it will be covered in swarf from the worn down cam follower.

Alright cheers for that, I thought it would be fine tbh. Will have a look at the cam lobe and check out the cam sensor tomorrow. Just had a little blast in it today and thought it felt fine. Will report back tomorrow. What if the cam lobe is not scored and the cam sensor is not covered in swarf? Would I have caught it just in time?

[pudding]

Yeah consider yourself lucky as you will have caught it in time 

[breeze]

Is the car tuned? On a standard map you can get away with a bit of cam wear, it gets harder when mapped because the fuel demands are higher. Worth checking codes too although you won’t always see a code for fuelling.

[Choudhry98]

No the car isn't tune, been stock it's whole life. Lady owner for 10 years and maintained by her husband. I checked the sensor thing as recommended by pudding and it was fine. I can only think I've gotten lucky here.

I have some trash code reader and it doesn't show anything. I have a VCDS cable but there's so many software options on the VCDS website that I haven't bothered to work out which one I need to download. Would you happen to know?

[bacillus]

Assuming your vcds cable is genuine and not a copy then this is the latest software for it.
[https://www.ross-tech.com/vcds/download/current.php][/url]