Enricos

Hello everybody,

I've been told by two Audi mechanics that I have to live with the noise made by my camshaft adjustment chains and since I really don't like this statement I would really like to have your input on this subject.

Here's the story. My car is an A6, 2.7T, manual 6spd from 2001 with 75.000 Km (46.500 mi). When I accelerate the noise of the engine is just fine but when I quickly lift the foot from the accelerator there is almost always some kind of rattle sound coming from the camshaft adjustment chains. They both make noise. My mechanic pretends that it's not a big noise and that it could just be normal but I'm 100% sure that this noise appeared somewhere at the beginning of 2004 and that it's just not supposed to be there.

Last year, I got my garage to change all the mechanic in and around the camshaft adjustment chains but two days later the noise was back there :-(. I went back to the garage, got the mechanic to hear it again and he was very sorry to hear that it was doing that noise again. He thinks that it won't affect the engine. His final conclusion was that I had to live it! The truth behind this is that he's absolutly sure that it comes from the camshaft adjustment chains but that he really doesn't know what to do to get rid of that noise.

I live in Luxembourg so, since I wasn't happy with the answer, I went to the distributor of Audi in Brussels and got their best mechanic to listen to the noise. His conclusion is that it seems that there is "not enough oil coming to the upper part of the engine". He said this because he also noticed that my valves were doing a lit bit more noise than normal. The overall oil pressure of the car was checked but everything was found to be OK. He also confirmed that the engine was probably not at risk. He said that they could change the chains and tensionners too but that it would probably not fix the problem since it failed with the replacement done at my usual Audi garage. His idea is that there could maybe be some "internal oil leak" somewhere. He said that the only way to really check this would be to measure the oil pressure at various points in the engine but that they were not equipped to make these measurements (?).

Does this story ring a bell to any of you ?

What's your opinion about this possible internal oil leak thing ?

Any idea or suggestion would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance for your answers and best regards to all of you,

Enricos
Luxembourg

Kris Hansen

My car has a lot of noise from the valvetrain.. I think as they age, it's somewhat normal...

por911

I've found that switching to heavier weight oil after 50k really made a difference in the engine noises.

a_o_smith

mine makes a "clicking sound" at idle...you can only hear it w/ hood open

schwank

I've heard a ton of old Benzes though, seems just the way it is...

Eric 2.7

The 2.7T needs 0 or 5 lower end, but try M1 0W40 if you're not using it already.

Enricos

no mechanical fix to perform. I'll let you know if that fixes the problem or not.

Thanks,

Enricos

Enricos

trying an oil thickener (additive) with my M1 0-40?

por911

I'm using it already and I'm in central NJ. There are only 2 months here were I feel it is too cold for 15w-50. The cars are also garaged and that makes a difference as well. Frankly, I found the V6 would just drink up the 0 weight stuff and we drive lightly. I did find that the mpg were better on the lighter weight oil, but with the heavier grade stuff, oil consumption went way down.

Ritz

I don't think you'll have any issue with Mobil1 15W-50. If the clatter bothers you, I'd just dump the existing oil and refill with 15W-50. I wouldn't recommend any "oil thickeners" or oil treatments.

As someone else pointed out, your mileage might drop a bit with the heavier weight oil, but that's the only downside I can think of (short of arctic temps during startup).

Cheers,