A few bits and bobs attacked today.
For my starter, I fitted these nifty Audi TT jacking points. Saves wear and tear on the pinch welds, which often fold over when numpties jack the car up in the wrong place.
And for the main course, I was back under the cam cover again to fix a nasty rattling from the chain area when the engine was hot.
I replaced the chain and tensioner 5 years (60K miles) ago so wasn't expecting those to be worn out already, which they aren't as it transpired.
Nice HPFP lobe condition for 160K miles old
Chain stuff all good, can't catch a finger nail in these grooves.
So what was causing the noise then?
A busted oil control ring in the VVT housing/chain cover
Seems to be quite common since VW switched from metal to plastic rings. There were no fault codes and the actual and requested cam angles always matched. The symptoms were sluggish boost onset, lumpy idle, flat bottom end, jolting through the drivetrain coming off/on the throttle and a horrendous racket just off idle.
I think the rings break when sliding the chain cover back on not quite square and they catch in the VVT phaser's wear grooves, by which point it's too late, you don't know that's happened until it either makes a noise, or you get a "Cam phasing slow response" fault code.
I can't see them just randomly snapping for no reason during normal use, but I have another theory to put on the dinner table. Stiff uprated engine mounts (which I did use for a short period). I'm wondering if the excessive vibration causes a harmonic resonance the delicate plastic rings don't like, and they shatter. Normally the soggy oem mounts absorb all that. Dunno. Can't think of any other reasons.
Either way, a new VVT phaser, chain, tensioner and cover were fitted and the noise is gone, finally! My midrange torque is back as well, yay
It's lovely and smooth again too. 6th gear now pulls like 5th used to, so it's definitely fighting fit again.
And for desert, I stuck some new engine mounts on. Lemforder brand. Identical to OEM but a third of the price. They even have the OEM part numbers on them, but the VW/Audi branding is ground off
You can always tell when a mount is f'cked from how off the bolt holes are on the new mount. That amount of misalignment caused some pretty interesting torque steer
And for the cheeseboard, fresh engine and gear oil
I had got to the point of thinking of selling up due to that noise, but feeding it some new parts has breathed a completely new lease of life into the old 160K girl