Stretched Cam chain / faulty intake camshaft adjuster solenoid

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itssam

A3 3.2Q Sport
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Hi guys,
it seems my dodgey idle is down to either a stretched cam chain or a faulty intake camshaft adjuster solenoid, neither of which are particularly cheap or easy to fix apparently.

How would i go about checking if the cam chain is stretched? I assume its not an easy job from the times i'm getting quoted.

Theres also a suggestion on some of the VW forums that giving the vag w8's solenoid a healthy 12v shock can clear some of the crap from the valves, is the design of the solenoid similar / the same on the v6 engines?

Cheers
Sam
 
I've just returned a mk4 R32 back to the dealer for a stretched chain. If you have access to vagcom, check measuring blocks 208 and 209 and if either value is more than 8 (mine were 8 and 9) then you have a problem and an expensive one!!, nobody would touch the R32 for less than £3000.
I've checked my A3 and it comes out at 1 and -1 and FYI, mine is also slightly lumpy on tickover.

What year is your A3 as I believe they changed the design halfway through 04?

If your anywhere near me, I'll check it for you?
 
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i'm in the south - guildford & richmond area... going to pop it into AmD Technik tomorrow for a second opinion, will get them to check those blocks.

Normally its a little lumpy, when its bad its having a good go at shaking my fillings out!
 
3.2 Ju said:
I've just returned a mk4 R32 back to the dealer for a stretched chain. If you have access to vagcom, check measuring blocks 208 and 209 and if either value is more than 8 (mine were 8 and 9) then you have a problem and an expensive one!!, nobody would touch the R32 for less than £3000.
I've checked my A3 and it comes out at 1 and -1 and FYI, mine is also slightly lumpy on tickover.

What year is your A3 as I believe they changed the design halfway through 04?

If your anywhere near me, I'll check it for you?
Click to expand...

i actually priced up having the chains replaced through VW dealership and it came to £1700 all in, the VW/Audi specialist i always use quoted £1400 all in.

Evenually i got it done for free at VW Milton Keynes due to pulling a few strings via work ;-)
 
Yeah I know, I've read and contributed to the thread on R32oc. Unfortunately, all the garages up here wanted £3k plus to do it and that's the ones that WOULD do it!!. It was out of my hands anyway as the independant dealer was paying for it.
Turned out to be a blessing in disguise really as I was glad to walk away from it tbh and the A3 is a far nicer car:yes:
 
Well, just come back from AmD and it's not the chain (-1 on both :)) they cleared the faults (cam sensor fault and missfires) and it stopped doing it again... They are going to phone some contacts and get back to me...

Great service from them but still none the wiser :( just glad to have the chain ruled out!
 
itssam - is your idle problem permanent or is it intermittent? Sounds very similar to a problem I have with my A3 3.2Q atm and have had for several months... My problem is that every so often the ESP and Engine Management light come on then when braking to a stop the engine cant hold its revs and cuts out. This seems to happen every 4-6 weeks - I have the codes read, then cleared and it runs fine again for another 4-6 weeks.

It has had Camshaft Adjustor sensor, MAF Sensor and inlet sensor replaced during the troubleshooting process none of which have resolved it.

It has been to Tyneside Audi today for a full diagnostic and they cant find a fault other than a 'sporadically spiking' Lambda Probe... They have been non-comittal on whether this could be linked to the problem ive been having. Another £120 and no further forward.
 
Hey mate,
Looking at your issues it doesn't sound quite the same - its totally intermittent but i've not had any issue with it cutting out or the ESP / Engine management lights - just the emissions light and a serious misfire on all cylinders when its playing up. I also don't have half the errors yours seems to be throwing.

The problem your getting sounds like the idle control failing - something i've seen on a couple of other (non-Audi) cars... i don't know enough about the Audi engines to tell if this would be relevant but the inability to hold revs would point me that way.
 
:crying: not happy - £950 down and its back with a lumpy idle this morning, it does seem to have improved, been pretty much fine since Sat with the new solenoid.

Apparently the old one was pretty knacker ed and the audi master mechanic suggested that a bulitin was on the way out soon for the chain / solenoid issues on the Vag 3.2 engines...

But this morning the idle was shakey as hell, its sounded a little rough in the mornings but i just put that down to being a bit cold, but this was different - after about 5 min of driving it was misfiring like mad - a couple of blips of the throttle seems to have cleared it, but really not sure where to go with it now :(

edit: oh and apparently its not really related to the mileage the cars done - more to do with the number of starts its had.
 
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By saying there should be a bulitin out soon does he mean re-call?

Or is he saying bulitin to let the dealers know what to do with em?

Cheers
 
edition said:
By saying there should be a bulitin out soon does he mean re-call?

Or is he saying bulitin to let the dealers know what to do with em?

Cheers
Click to expand...

this is second hand from AmD talking to Audi but it sounded like a technical bulletin not a recall unfortunately
 
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