slight rattle from right side of head 3.2

Kaibo

Kaibo

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Noticed this this evening as I got to work, on idle I could hear a faint rattle from the right side of the head, I can't compare it to anything so it's hard to describe, definitely seems to be the head though on the actual side and not lower down, every click tick and rattle scares the hell out of me but I need to know. Thanks for any answers.
 
You sound like your as paranoid as me!
Can you hear it from in the car or just with the bonnet popped?
 
Are the belts, chain and tensioners not on the left (looking at engine, bonnet open)?
I can't hear it from within the car, I noticed when I got out with the engine running, popped the bonnet to investigate and located it to where the camshaft would be on a single cammed engine. I've got a month left of warranty so ideally would like any possible points picked up, not that I can get hold of the dealer on the phone.
 
Ah 3.2, sorry in tdi thought mode lol, maybe it is, need to check the bible to confirm.
 
Auxiliary belt on the left cam chain on the right. How many miles has your car done?
 
That's ok NHN, made me smile.
It's done 56k so I'm hoping there is plenty of life left in it yet.
 
NHN, being the VCDS guru, can you confirm if its possible to tell by the readings on blocks 208 and 209 that the timing chains are stretched?
There seems to be differing opinions.
 
I wouldn't call me a guru fella, I don't get as much access as I'd like, so I'm limited by what I work on mostly.

From what I recall from Paddy's 3.2, it wasn't necessarily clear from any vcds MVB's, so he had the whole lot stripped & turned out it was & cost him about 10k in total when all done, so by this I wouldn't say its clear cut by the diagnostics.
 
You can check whether the chains are stretched with blocks 208 and 209 however this doesn't guarantee that they will not fail/snap even if they aren't stretched.
 
RobinA3 said:
You can check whether the chains are stretched with blocks 208 and 209 however this doesn't guarantee that they will not fail/snap even if they aren't stretched.
Click to expand...
Ok so saying that, what would you recommend doing?
 
Are you sure it's a new noise? Do you know anyone with an A3 or R32 so you can listen to their engine for comparison?
Before I took mine off the road the chains were making (marbles in a can) noise. My mate has an R32 so I listened to his and alrhough there was some noise it wasn't as bad as mine.
His has done 50 odd thousand miles. So I think the chains must make a noise in all the 3.2 engines, just depends on how much noise.
 
Yeah I've heard my mates one on 130k and haven't heard this before, definitely new. I've just gone out to check it again to make sure I'm not going mad, I thought I'd check the oil first and it's sitting 3 or 4mm over the max line, could oil be used to mask a noise like that, I've only done 800 miles in the 2 months since I bought it, feeling quite worried now, especially as it seems he avoids my calls.
It sounds metallic and can clearly be heard on Idle with the bonnet closed.
 
there is a way of knowing if the chain is stretched or not, by unscrewing 1 or 2 bits and looking at the timing markers. it is a 2 hour job, max. I will look up the details for you.
 
Sorry, my previous post was form a device on which text input was challenging, so now I'm back again with the info you might be after:

Various sources report that blocks 208 and 209 are no clear indication of the status of your chain: people have been running fine for quite a while with these sensors in their supposed error state, and others have had an engine breakdown because of a stretched chain whilst the sensors indicated there was no problem. So: I don't trust the sensors.

You can however, check the timing marks manually. It turns out to be a bit more work than just unscrewing 2 parts, but it should be a 2 hr job max. Basically, you remove the air intake filter box, remove 1 or two sensors and then you have access to a nice little peephole to see the timing marks. See page 47 and onwards of the German pdf here:

http://www.a3quattro.de/pdf/Bericht_VR6_3-2_Kettentrieb_onlineVers.pdf
 
Thank you Qua3ttro, I may go and stick my head in a bucket of sand and hope all is well on my return.
Worse car scenario and the chain needs doing, What's the best price if be looking at from an indi?
Cheers kai
 
I have had quotes from £600 (with me supplying the parts so add another £200) to £2400 to do mine.
I believe it is circa 12 hours work, most indys are around £40 per hour around my end. Im need my head gasket doing aswell so im expecting a £1500 - £1800 bill for mine..... if i dont do it myself which is the plan at the moment however im a bit of a spaz with a spanner so it may cost more to rectify my **** ups.
 
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