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Big Chungus Mk6

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
It's a turbocharged motor with VVT, nobody finds them viable. APR had tried a few designs back in the day, but found no significant gains.
Damn, the cams are expensive though.
My buddy said 85% chance is the cam and 15% chance its the solenoid.
 

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
This is what the service tech at the shop found
I guess VCDS does the cam adjustment in a percentage
What do you guys make of this? @jay745

Tech wrote this:

Technician performed several mile test drive and allowed vehicle to idle in shop for 15 minutes, however no abnormal noises exhibited at this time.

Live scantool data yields 5.9% Camshaft Adjustment, which is on the higher end of specification. - Customer has replaced chain, tensioner, and guides 10-15K miles ago, so suspect mechanical timing chain components to be OK.

Technician removed camshaft adjuster solenoid to inspect/test solenoid and mechanical oil control (spool) valve located behind solenoid. - Solenoid appears original and yields an acceptable 8 ohms of resistance, however pintle exhibits slight "sticking". - Oil control valve center button moving freely when pressed and properly seated flush per attached customer supplied video.

Upper timing cover will require removal should customer wish to further inspect timing chain components, however considering intermittent nature of noise concern, technician believes cause to be intermittent electrical failure of camshaft adjuster solenoid as mechanical failure of chain would be present at all times.
1729279426784.png
 

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
It's been 10 days since the last post.
The shop replaced the magnet, which didn't change shit. Those idiots couldn't even hear the ticking noise 🤣. It was the loudest ticking noise I've ever heard, and obviously not a normal sound.
Fuck em.
I wasn't going to spend any more money or time on the car in Nashville. Seems like I always have to do shit myself because shops put such low effort if it doesn't mean taking your money.

So I took a bus back to Nashville this past Thursday, picked up the car, and drove it to an Airbnb to spend the night.
I left Nashville at 7am on Friday and arrived in Austin at 10:30pm.
It was easily the most stressful drive of my life.

The car would flash "check oil pressure" on significant decelerations (think going from highway to red light to gas station, or highway speed to stopngo traffic).
It stalled three times during the drive. The worst time was past Little Rock in Arkansas, when I came up on traffic, went from 70-0, stalled, and had to get out, and push the car over to the shoulder. It wouldn't start (cranked just fine) the first 3 times I tried. On the fourth try (after making a few phone calls), I let the starter rip for a good 3-4 seconds and finally it came to life.

After that, I didn't stop the car until my gas stop at a Bucees in Dallas. I filled up there and that was enough to make it back home to Austin. After getting to within 15 miles of my house, one of the o2 sensors must have started to fail, because the STFT went into "limp mode" at 1.00 and the car defaulted to running rich (11-12 afr).

But I made the drive, and after doing some research, I'm nearly certain that the issue is the camshaft vvt system is failing. The vvt gear uses oil to change the orientation, and if the gear isn't sealing the oil in there properly, it can cause issues and will make a tick at low idle (when oil pressure is the least). So below 1500 rpm is when the car should feel kinda shitty, and if you drop rpm too fast, the car will stall.

It's now Tuesday, and I said "F it, I'm taking this hog to work" so that I can grab some groceries on the way back and say hi to my coworkers (been 3+ weeks of working remote). The car was going rich on the way here, so I'm really hoping that it makes it home and that the vvt system isn't causing the valves to smack into the pistons.

So I'm going to do a compression test once I get home to make sure I don't need a new head. I'm going to pop off the upper timing cover and take a quick peek, also check on the condition of the cam bridge.

Then I'll to order timing chain, tensioner, guides for sure (I can warranty the old ones with FCP, nice) and probably replace the intake camshaft.

@jay745 @zrickety @GolNat mechanic friends, what do y'all think?
 
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king1138

Go Kart Champion
Make sure you check the screen in the cam bridge before you go nuts ordering parts, there have been many issues with the screen breaking and causing a slew of drivability issues.
 

king1138

Go Kart Champion
Not necessarily, the screen could be partially blocking one of the oil passages, causing the VVT to "bounce" due to inconsistent pressure and oil flow. Most of the time removing the chunk of screen completely resolves the issues.
 

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
Not necessarily, the screen could be partially blocking one of the oil passages, causing the VVT to "bounce" due to inconsistent pressure and oil flow. Most of the time removing the chunk of screen completely resolves the issues.
We'll see, I'll pop the upper cover off and inspect the cam bridge.
 
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