Kris Hansen

My '06 A4, which I've had for just shy of a year and just shy of 10k miles has pretty much always sounded like the car in the video here. I have no codes, it runs nice, makes good power.. But the sound it makes worries me. Anyone found a decent way to replace the tensioner and chain without replacing the whole damn engine?

Oil is clear, no shavings or other oddities. Note that this is no my video, byt just one that I found which has the same kind of sound my car makes.

Dolamite

Youtube videos all sound the same. The 2.0t is a noisy engine. I'd change it the tensioner out if you're getting up there in miles regardless if you can. Or pay the shop to do it.

If you search the web, you should find the procedure or buy the bentley manual.

How's your back? You're going to need to remove the vacuum pump and the cam chain housing. Away from the ordinary torx set you're going to need a polydrive socket (forget the size) for the cam adjuster. Also a small low profile gear ratchet.

You may get away with not removing the cam guide frame, but you're still going to need the cam locking tool.

The cam adjuster is going to have come off to get the chain tensioner removed. There isn't enough slack in the chain. The polydrive bolt on the cam adjuster is a BITCH. If you're not careful you can strip it.

Not a completely fun job, but it is doable.

Kris Hansen

I agree to a point, the engines are noisy. But the noise I'm particularly focusing on is that "ringing" noise you hear near the passenger side of the back of the head, where the adjuster is. And lately, it sounds way more ticky directly at the area where the cam chain is than it does where the HPFP is. And you can hear it in the cabin as a whirring/clicking noise, which sounds like some of the videos I've seen where the chain is riding only on the tensioner piston.

It sounds "broken" to me. The fact that it sounds dramatically worse when the engine is warm than it does on a cold start makes me even more convinced it's tensioner related. I've seen way too many examples of these engines with tensioners which have shed the plastic slides to chance it.

Currently it's at my trusted shop, I just don't have the time to risk trying the "easy" way (removing the adjuster and cam gear) and having it go south requiring removing half the engine to get it done.

Dolamite

The process I glanced over is no were "easy". Skilled indy Audi techs take this route efficiently if there's no evidence of catastrophic damage.

Kris Hansen

Thus why I put easy in quotes. Nothing is easy, but as someone who has done many timing belts, starters, alternators, heater cores, etc.. I don't shy away from work, but this one has more to it than I have time for.