Donuts

Been doing some major maintenance on a '99 AHA A6 with 98,000 miles that I purchased two weeks ago. Belts, fluids, etc.. as the prior owner only had service records to 75,000. He swore the T-Belt, water pump, tensioner, roller, etc were changed but didn't have receipts and when I tore it down I could see it wasn't the case. In addition it had leaky valve covers, cam shaft and cam tensioner seals.

Anyway, I was doing the driver-front cam tensioner seal last night due the leaks. After torquing everything down, releasing the tensioner and hand cranking over the engine, the tensioner now "pops" up as opposed to rising smoothly. I swore I didn't tighten it down to much with the tool!! :-(

Am I effed and in for an entirely new cam chain tensioner? I don't want to button this up, turn it over and kill a bunch of valves. I'll call my indie to take a look and get his opinion but wanted some opinions. - Thanks, Joe

DaveInSaltLake

does it pop more than once?

Donuts

Yes...which is what concerns me.

cparke

There are two part #'s, one for bank 1 and one for bank 2. They are not interchangeable even though they will fit! (The difference lies in the camshaft adjustment's direction)

BTW - I'm told the cam adjusters (tensioners) are another source of oil leaks and should be changed with the TB, btw.

quattrokiwi

so once the car is started it should work fine

Donuts

Once I turned over the engine and the oil pressure built up it stopped clicking/popping. Definitely a bit unsettling when I first started it up.

DaveInSaltLake

lots of cars do it, some don't.

I think I fixed ours by running some snake oil in the motor before the last oil change. 3 months without a problem and I'm holding my breath as cold weather approaches.