dave120

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've been on here much. School, work, and everything else have been keeping me busy.

Anyways, I took my S2 on a little trip to Clearwater and it ran very well the whole time. I noticed though after I got back and went to move my car the next day, that it has a loud ticking sound, both at idle and it increases with rpm (the few that I revved it to). Guages all look normal, oil is full up, oil pressure guage says it's over 5 bar like it's supposed to be when cold. I haven't taken it up to speed and temperature because I don't know what's wrong with it. It seems to run fine moving it around the driveway a little.

Could the injectors get really noisy all of a sudden? Or is my oil pump shot? (and guage still says 5 bar?) Anything else I'm not aware of? I'm afraid to drive it until I figure out what it is.

35thSLP

Could be an exhaust leak somewhere. Loose header bolt maybe?

schumi

could be a lifter is stuck or loose or whatever. see if you can tell if sound is coming from valve cover.

Matt O.

Dave if you need some help with it let me know. I'll drive up tomorrow if you want man, haven't hung out in a while anyway.

Maybe it's the lifters? They get dirty sometimes and get stuck make noise.

Matt O.

Oops sorry schumi. Yeah like he said (if you hold your hand on the cam cover you can sort of feel the lifters if it's them).

dave120

I'll give that stuff a try tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the tips guys.

Matt--I'll be around all day tomorrow so you're welcome to come and hang out if you want. Give me a call or something

seb928s

That's what you get for coming to clearwater with the S2 and not seeing us Dave Check if you have a leak at the headers and like they said you can kinda feel the lifter if you put your hand on the cover. Maybe you can make a mp3 of the sound and post it.

dave120

Actually Matt scratch that I have to help my sister move tomorrow morning, but later in the afternoon I should be home.

Seb, yeah I took it over there a couple weeks ago...I wasn't there that long though. I'll definately be givin you guys a call soon though, I'm sorry I missed her party on Sat. We haven't hung out in a while. We'll try in a couple weeks when Teresa gets back from Europe!

flamingeye

Don't want to alarm you, but.. this is what happened to me today.
Started car this morning, third time engine fired (unusual) Then there was a very noticable tappity sound from the engine. Nothing visible to make the sound.
Drove a little way, was ok but sound remained. Drove it over to mechanic, to find that the cam chain tensioner/slip pad (top) had disintrigated. On closer inspection about half the teeth had sheered off both cams.
So new cams (very, very,very expensive) as well as chain/tension kit etc. Into four figures. Pounds sterling that is.
The only bright side is that I got away with catastrophe by the skin of my teeth.
Remember, this was just a tappity sound.
No power loss, no revs hunting. I saw the oil pressure drop to 2 when idling, this is when the car was all fired up into the journey.
Worth checking.
Cheers

mgmarsh39

mine has that same noise and i have noticed that alot of VW's make it too. I think it is normal unelss it is extremely loud.

ps. musta not taken I-4 to clearwater since you survived haha

Mark944na86

So just to clarify: This was a 16V car? And this was an example of the dreaded "upper cam pad" failure?

Sorry to hear about your problem. But I admire the admire the Sir Frances Chichester attitude "but things could have be worse!" (Useful to remember, for example when you're sailing solo around the world in a small boat and you've just capsized sailing around around Cape Horn...)

-Mark

Peckster

Oh. my. god.

mgmarsh39

???

dave120

Got my dad out there and drove the car for a little while today. Tapping sound went away after it warmed up. I'll drive it again tomorrow and see if it comes back. Might have been some dirt or something causing it to be like that, I'm not sure. Either way everything was running perfectly...I really don't get to drive her enough anymore...I need to change that.

And I know I-4 all too well...Maybe in another year they might actually be done with the contruction!

flamingeye

Sorry, forgot to mention model. S2.

Is it more of a ticking or a tappity sound? How loud, if a ticking maybe some relay going bananas. But you don't normally hear these with the engine running.
When fired up, mine would make a louder sound of things whirring around for the first few minutes then all settle down.
Check the oil is topped up.