jimbolas

Hey everyone I could really use some insight on my current situation. I just bought my very first Audi and I am excited to get it on the road. It is a 2001 Audi A6 2.7t Quattro with 117,000 miles on it. I bought the car at auction two weeks ago and expected to invest some money into it… I seriously underestimated what this car required, but I am committed now. I will likely end up maxing my budget out for this car, but I am trying to remain optimistic about it. I do not know much about Audi engines at all and these last two weeks have been a crash course on Audi engineering.

This car had an oil leak on both sides and after doing some research I determined it was the valve cover gaskets. I decided to go ahead and do the timing belt at the same time. I bought a valve cover gasket kit and a timing belt kit from Blauparts and rented the complete tool kit to do the job properly. I followed the directions with the kits very carefully and did not take any shortcuts. I properly set the engine to TDC, used the crank lock pin and the cam locking tool. I do remember when using the cam chain tensioner tool the directions said to be very careful when compressing the tensioner to avoid damage to it. It is possible I went too far with it and I suspect this was the cause of the current problem I am having. I completed the passenger side and when it came time to do the tensioner I was more cautious with it. After replacing all gaskets around the camshafts I resumed in finishing the timing belt and took the car out of the service position. The kits I used included the following items:

Enhanced Valve Cover Gasket Kit
• Valve Cover G2 Neoprene Perimeter Valve Cover Gasket - Improved
• 2 Neoprene Center Valve Cover Gasket - Improved
• 2 Cam Chain Tensioner Gaskets - Improved
• 2 Camshaft Valley Seals - Improved
• 2 Viton Front Cam Sprocket Camshaft Seals
• 2 Viton Cam Reference Sensor Seals
• 2 Viton Rear Camshaft End Cap Seals
• 4 Cam Chain Pads - (Enhanced Addition)
• 1 Cam Chain Tensioner Tool - (Enhanced Addition)
• 1 Tube Silicone RTV Gasket Compound

Enhanced Timing Belt Kit
• 2 Neoprene Perimeter Valve Cover Gasket - Improved
• 2 Neoprene Center Valve Cover Gasket - Improved
• 2 Cam Chain Tensioner Gaskets - Improved
• 2 Camshaft Valley Seals - Improved
• 2 Viton Front Cam Sprocket Camshaft Seals
• 2 Viton Cam Reference Sensor Seals
• 2 Viton Rear Camshaft End Cap Seals
• 4 Cam Chain Pads - (Enhanced Addition)
• 1 Cam Chain Tensioner Tool - (Enhanced Addition)
• 1 Tube Silicone RTV Gasket Compound

I started the car up completed the coolant bleeding process, but I heard a noise I had not recognized before. The location where I am confident the noise is coming from is the passenger side near the combi valve. At first I thought this was an exhaust leak because it sounds like a diesel in the engine bay. The noise was proportionate with the RPMs and at first it was constant. Now, after a few engine runs, I can only hear the noise when fluctuating RPMs rapidly and there is smoke coming out of the exhaust. My unprofessional opinion tells me that the passenger side tensioner is worn out and there is slack in between the exhaust and intake cam. I believe the engine is literally dieseling and blowing unburned fuel out of the exhaust due to the camshafts being unsynchronized?
Has anyone been through this before? What do you all think the problem is? The VAG-COM is on its way and I’ll need a few days to familiarize myself with it, but should I be prepared for codes or will I have to analyze the engine specs?

Where is a good place to get the tensioner? I am trying not to spend more than a 400 for one if that’s possible.

What other preventative maintenance should I take care of while doing the tensioner and is it possible to only remove the intake cam?

oceanbreeze

First of all, until you verify and confirm timing, don't crank or run the engine. Unplug the battery to be sure (but before you do, scan it and post the codes).

From what you are describing it does sound like the chain is loose and hitting the valve cover, but without being there it's hard to know. for future consideration: do each job separately so you can have some way of knowing if you did something wrong. In this case, it's hard to rule out if you set the TB incorrectly or the chain between the two camshafts on that side.

Another thing you may want to check -- how taut is the timing belt? Is it loose? If so, a prime culprit would be the tensioner.

Also, what exactly did you do on the valve cover area besides the gaskets and cct seals? did you replace the cct pads as well? (btw, your two lists contain the same components). Did you confirm that you set the timing properly between the cams? One way to check for a failing CCT is to see if there is any slack on the chain when you hand-turn the engine.

I wouldn't cheap out on a CCT. I'd get the OEM, or OE, and if I couldn't find it, I'd pay dealer prices. Sorry to read you got stuff from bp. Buying on price alone is a race to the bottom -- of quality. My first suspicion when I started reading your post was that you must have got a TB tensioner from somewhere cheap/unpredictable, like bp. What brand was the tensioner?

mcmorariu

Did you figure it out?
I did TB at 85k and had the same issue.
I even called it a Diesel sound myself...

After reading a post from a Porsche owner with the same issue, I re-opened the TB covers to find the timing appeared OK.

However, to convince myself I did it right, I took the belt off and reinstalled it, ended up exactly the same, however when I started the engine, the noise had disappeared.

I have been thinking that maybe the hydraulic belt tensioner got too tight and I loosened it the second time around...

Secondly I thought since I skipped the step where I loosen the cam sprockets while the tool is still attached, to seat the belt better, that might have been the cause.

Anyway, I'm hoping you found the problem, and you can share the solution.

Thanks,
M.

BernieBenz

This noise has nothing to do with the TB, rather just getting the cams temporally out of sinc as a result of loosening the chain to replace the chain tensioner gasket. BTDT. See my write up on this posted on the "other" forum, URL below.
http://forums.quattroworld.com/a6/msgs/55764.phtml