jbsmtp

Hello, I have a 2013 S4 that started having a rattle at start up after sitting overnight. The rattle started after about 35,000 miles on the car. The dealer was unable to determine from 35,000 to just below 50,000 what was causing the rattle. Now after finding a recording of the noise the dealer says it is normal and due to lack of oil until the engine is started. I requested any technical support for the issue and was given a service bulletin for a 2004 A6 3.0 V6. Anyone else have this issue or no of why the 2004 V6 would be compared to the 3.0T. From what I can see the two engines have different bore and stroke, cylinder heads and displacement.

kungfupanda11

I had the same rattle and many others have. Something to do with the top tensioners. There's a service bulletin which advises dealers to change them under warranty or if the car is out of warranty, it can be left.

Mine used to rattle for at least two or three seconds and be quite loud but since I did an oil change, the most it lasts for is a second. I'm not worried about it. One person I've read changed his oil to Miller's Nanodrive and it eliminated the startup rattle altogether.

jbsmtp

I did recently follow up with AoA concerning the TSB and the fact that mine started before warranty ran out. No response yet and won't be surprised if I don't even hear back from them. I talked to a german car specialist who works on my other german cars. He indicated that his experience was that the 2.0 VW Audi cam tensioners fail and basically destroy the engine (probably why there is class action suit on those engines) but the 3.0 will atleast trigger the engine malfunction sensor before they fail so you can fix before it destroys the engine. I have two estimates to fix one is $5.500 and the other is 6,750 but that was priced high because they don't want to do it.

kungfupanda11

I'd try an oil change with decent oil before spending any money on fixes.

Kris Hansen

Your German specialist is a little off. The class action suit was for oil consumption on the more recent 2.0TSI. Also, ANY, and I repeat ANY Audi engine with timing CHAINS can have failures when the tensioners decide to not work any more. The rattle is due to slackness in the chain, and the chain slapping or rubbing on places it shouldn't be in contact with.

There was quite a fuss over the V8 engines in the older S4 models suffering from catastrophic failures of the chains, and honestly, I see that no Audi engines are truly immune to it. I have a friend in Germany with a 3.0TFSI S5 that blew a chain, resulting in a full engine rebuild. I've heard of 2.0TSI engines eating themselves due to failed tensioners.

Long and short of it is, DO NOT do 10k oil changes, and use good oil. Always. And press your dealer if you are under warranty. Once the chain rattle starts, it will only get worse.

jbsmtp

Very pleasant surprise from the dealer. After review of documentation, including the TSB which was issued within a week of my original claim, the dealer agreed to do all of the work under warranty even though cars mileage is above 50,000. I certainly appreciate members pointing out the TSB, it was very helpful. I must also give credit to the service manager who was quite willing to review all of the documentation that I provided. The work has been done and the work seems to be a of very high quality as there have been no rattles cam tensioners or otherwise.

J_Win

I noticed the same thing on early morning start ups, slight rattle. I just hit 60k miles on my 2013 A7.