8V RS3 Engine rattle/tick

[Stealth80]

Afternoon all. My 2015 RS3 (56k miles) has developed a rather loud tick/rattle mainly at idle. This loterally started overnight, i pullwd up weds evening to put the car in the garage, no issues, started it the following morning the below linked sound was present.


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/09rg_82sd48?si=MIgJ5Jji4FTiJo0o

No fault codes on either OBD11 or Vagcom.

It goes away above 2500rpm and reappears below and doesnt appear to link to engine rpm (does appear to get faster or louder) Initially I thought the timing chain was possibly stretched, however my mate has just checked all the angles and they're 1.68, im told its time to change above 5.0

Performance isnt quite 100% but otherwise runs fine, however its parked in my garage whilst I work out what's going on. Coincidently theres very little suction on filler cap, not sure if thats a pointer to vacuum leakage?

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Stealth80]

I cant edit the above. The ticking does not increase with engine speed in either noise or speeds, and seems to go away above 2500rpm. Performance not much worse than usual, however im not using thr car until this is sorted.

ive just had both the VVT solenoids out, both still tick over on 12 volts. The top one was a ***** to remove and corroded so im going to replace it. Are they interchangeable or do I have to get a specific one for the upper one?

 

[Stealth80]

So far changed the fuel cam follower, and plugs and coil packs.

Upper crankcase and rocker cover off today, all looks clean and undamaged.. chain has some slide play on the forward chain guide, little bit of play in the tensioner but I assume thats due to having no oil pressure?