noise coming from top end of VR6 engine

[jedi-knight83 0]

I serviced my car at the weekend.

 

New Oil (quantam silver)

New plugs (NGK Plats)

etc

 

only done town driving since then, but this evening i took it on a longer drive and there is a wierd noise above 2500 rpm. I re-checked the oil levels and its all fine. with the bonnet open on idle it sounds noisey, but not like the infamous chain ( i dont think???) sounds more like tappets (do these need adjusting on VR6 engines?)

 

It still goes like stink so its not affecting power, just sounding horrible.

 

Any advice??? Please

[jedi-knight83 0]

Had the same on the way to work this morning, just driving through town. I have no idea what it is but it sounds horrid.

 

I'm gonna get it checked out by cowley rd garage (VW specialist) at lunch time.

 

Hope its nothing major :(

[dazzyvr6 0]

could be that your engine doesnt like using quantum synta oil,mine used to drink the stuff so i changed to shell helix which made it 10 times better

[Supercharged 2]

Tappets do get noisey but what sort of noise is it??

 

Are are you sure its not just a broken heatsheild somewhere, most likely the one on cat, and reasonating up the manifold making it sound like the noise is in the engine.... have a look under the car whilst someone revs the engine.

[jedi-knight83 0]

i guess it could be the oil as it only really started after i changed it??? but i would be suprised if the oil made THAT much difference??

 

The noise sounds really tinney if that makes sense? and sounds to be right on the top of the engine where the cams and tappets are.

 

I guess i will know more this afternoon after the garage have looked at it.

[Oichan 0]

A chain tensioner guide may have broken if noise comes out from around No.5 cylinder.

When a chain tensioner guide breaks, a rivet hits a chain, and loud sound comes out.

My chain tensioner guide broke two years ago.

 

 

 

The owner of VR6 is to be careful of the oil pressure in wintertime.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

What mileage is the engine at? Could be time for the dreaded tensioners!

 

It could be oil related. The tappets may have become accustomed to a certain brand/viscosity of oil over the years. You might just need a change of tappets. I had mine done at 80K and I've stuck to the same oil since (quantum silver) and it's been quiet, well, as quiet as a VR will ever be as they're not the most refined of engines.

 

I also took the oppurtunity to check the upper tensioner whilst the rocker cover was off and thankfully it was nothing like the one in Oichan's picture! It was just starting to show signs of pitting but not deep score lines.

 

K

[jedi-knight83 0]

Well the verdict from the garage was good actually.

 

He said it sounded like the tappets but it was no where near bad enough to worry about anything especially not striping it down and looking into it further.

 

It could have been triggered by some grit around a tappet as i didnt do an engine flush when i changed my oil. in the garage when there doing a service they will use wynns engine flush before putting new oil in again.

 

He said there are a few options.

1-just leave it and put up with the noise (year right, like im gonna do that :D)

2-change the oil again but use and engine flush this time

3-wynns do a special flush that is for tappets that you put into the ehgine, leave for 400 miles and then do the oil change with standard engine flush.

 

he also said that it definately wasnt the chain as he couldnt hear that atall.

 

i'll probably try an oil change in a week or so if it doesnt cure itself before then

[jedi-knight83 0]

What mileage is the engine at? Could be time for the dreaded tensioners!

 

It could be oil related. The tappets may have become accustomed to a certain brand/viscosity of oil over the years. You might just need a change of tappets. I had mine done at 80K and I've stuck to the same oil since (quantum silver) and it's been quiet, well, as quiet as a VR will ever be as they're not the most refined of engines.

 

I also took the oppurtunity to check the upper tensioner whilst the rocker cover was off and thankfully it was nothing like the one in Oichan's picture! It was just starting to show signs of pitting but not deep score lines.

 

K

 

Mileage is 82k

 

Is it alot of work to take the rocker cover off? i want to give it a good clean anyway and if i can see the upper tensioner while im at it, that would be handy.... can the upper tensioner be changed without stripping the engine?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

 

Mileage is 82k

 

Is it alot of work to take the rocker cover off? i want to give it a good clean anyway and if i can see the upper tensioner while im at it, that would be handy.... can the upper tensioner be changed without stripping the engine?

 

That's not a lot actually, for some reason I thought yours was in the 100s...

 

Well, tbh, 80K is roughly the average service life of tappets anyway.....so the King of VWs at Stealth said at least....and that's when I had mine hoiked out. Don't expect a miraculous wave of silence afterwards though! They will always be audible (unless you use crude oil as a lubricant) but there are different levels of audibility!

 

"Shut the F' up you noisey piece of Sh1t", noise..... "Whoa, that's a tappy engine", and a "I can hear the tappets, but only when the bonnet is up" kind of noise.

 

Mine went from noise 1 to noise 3. So draw your own conclusions....!

 

Taking the rocker cover off isn't much work at all. Get some new gaskets though!

 

K

[jedi-knight83 0]

i think my noise is bordering on a 1 and a 2 at the moment then.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

i think my noise is bordering on a 1 and a 2 at the moment then.

 

Basically, if you drive alongside a road partition wall and you can hear loud tappet noises being reflected back...replace them!

 

K

[jedi-knight83 0]

and the cost of this sound reducing job?

[dr_mat 0]

Quite: having 116k miles on mine and no receipts for new ones, I'm curious to know too...

Not that I'm too worried about mine - they seem to quieten down when it all warms up ok.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

My tappets were done as part of a list of chores I got Stealth to do, but guesstimating......12 x £6 lifters (non-genuine Febi things), 1 x £10.95 rubber rocker cover seal, 1 x £5 inlet manifold gasket and 2 x £30 p/hour labour = £147.95

 

Cheers

K

[Guest]

I'm gonna get it checked out by cowley rd garage (VW specialist) at lunch time.

 

Oxford?

 

Are you the black C thats always up and down Cowley road, **** T V V ?

 

 

 

edit:- the V V looked like a W

[Guest]

huh, just looked at ya avatar on the top post and your cambridge :(

 

this new forum layout is confusing me :s

[2cc 0]

How bizarre. Had my 6 stood for a few weeks till I got around to wiring in a new alarm (my dead fuel pump story) and she fired up lovely afterwards. Left her warming up while I cleared the workspace when this horrific clattering started from the top end. Frightened me to death and was worried about what might have just broken. Backed her out of the w/shop onto a sideways slope for a couple of mins and the noise miraculously disappeared - and no recurrance. How weird is that?

I have noticed though that if I leave the 16v for any lenght of time it sometimes takes a while for the tappets to re-oil and quieten down, but thats a different story coz it's all in the sump.

[dr_mat 0]

That how it happens - the oil that's in the tappets when you turn the engine off (particularly if the oil wasn't fully up to temp at the time) stays there - so it's nice and quiet when you restart it. But the pressure of the cams hitting the lifters pushes the oil out slowly, and this is greater than the ability of the thick oil to get squeezed in the other side, hence quiet when first started, then clattery, then it quietens down again as all the oil pressures settle out and oil circulates properly.

 

Or was that just bull that I made up??

 

At least that's how it happens on mine.. I'm due an oil change, but I wouldn't have thought 5k mile old quantum silver would be that problematic.