Engine running slightly rough and loud

[Hevoshullu]

Hey everybody,

I recently noticed my GTI is running slightly rough and loud under heavier acceleration from 3000 rpm and up. Below 3000 rpm it is smooth and quiet and you can mostly hear the exhaust note. It doesn't judder, misfire or lack in power and idle is also smooth, I am just getting more intake noise and the sound is generally rougher than what you would expect - the kind of stuff that makes an owner worried because it sounds it could be internal... 

My car is a 2007 model with a manual gearbox and a BWA engine. It has done 65k miles and has been serviced regularly with 8-10k mile intervals. The car is burning approximately one liter of oil every 4k miles, but as far as I am aware this is quite normal for a 2.0 TFSI engine of this era. Spark plugs and cam belt have also been recently replaced.

I did a forum/google search on the subject but didn't really find anything related. Is there anything I should look for that could cause excess noise and roughness to the engine?
I hope it wouldn't require a massive project like cleaning up the valves etc.. It's a real shame because my car is in such mint condition bodywork and chassis-wise but now the motor is spoiling it.

Best regards,
Lauri from Finland

[Saintsteve]

Has the Diverter valve ever been changed?

[Hevoshullu]

I did replace the DV a year back for preventive maintenance.

The cold and moist winter weather and lack of proper use might have something to do with the state of my engine oil though. I only drove the car a couple of times a week for very short journeys (so short and slow that the temp gauge hardly hit 90 degrees centigrade during the trips) during the last 3 months. So I checked my oil levels as the car normally burns some oil. There was a fair amount of that yellow gunk on the oil filler cap - caused by condensation because of not running hot enough? I also added a liter of fresh Castrol 5W-30 in there and gave the car a proper blast on a motorway. I'm not sure if it's inside my head or not but I feel like the engine is running much smoother again. 

[cander83]

Mine was like this . Had hole in breather pcv hose .