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Rattle from engine

12K views 31 replies 15 participants last post by  seanflychamonix 
#1 ·
Hi there guys!

New to the forum after having some thoughts about buying my work van from the company. They're offering it to me for a what i think is reasonable money, but it is in need of some work. I've been driving it for around 4 years, so know the history of it well, and the company has owned it from new. It's an 03 2.5 tdi (blue 'i') with intercooler.

The main bit that is bothering me is the fact it has a rattle from the top? of the engine. The power is still there, starts first time quickly and without hesitation and still has good fuel economy etc. I'm not entirely sure what it could be. I know it is due a cam belt and service etc which i'm factoring in. I know this is a very vague description, but any general problems that people know of that you can fire my way, it would be much appreciated.

Ben
 
#13 ·
Hello! It has been a while since I had to post anything, I'm just looking at what is potentially my third t4, it has the same rattle,and it gets worse when you rev the engine! The mother is the 2.5 with inter cooler, and the guy selling it has no idea what it is, the timing belt was done twice last year along with fuel pump and water pump and some other things. On separate occasions respectively.
If it is not the vacuum pump, is there any other possiblilties?
 
#16 ·
Hi, Sorry to hijack this thread, I've also got a rattle, been underneath mine today, mine sounds more like a heat shield on the exhaust but been right under the whole van and nothing is loose, sounds more from the front more than anything, thought it might have been the large metal cover under the engine but again all checked and nothing loose, seems to be when I pull up at a junction and dip the clutch when the engine is ticking over as soon as I rev it a little then it stops, however the bugga doesn't happen when I let it tick-over on the drive and try and find it :* and ideas welcome?

I'm new to the T4 but have had other VW/Audi's, loving the T4............ kitting it out inside at the moment then I know it needs a few things for its MOT in February :( Lower ball joint, CV boot and hand brake to to good so far that I know of. Sorry to rabbit on a little, Any ideas on my rattle would be great. I'm in the north east (Newcastle) so any other T4's in the area would be nice to meet up for a chat.
 
#18 ·
Thanks for the quick reply mate, Seriously it sounds more like metal to metal, then again you probably know more than me!!

The thing is it stops as soon as you give it alittle rev plus it's not all the time....... just more when its cold.

Guess I need to take off the full metal cover thingy off the bottom of the engine before I can investigate it further.

Can anyone tell me if it'll do any harm driving without it? Thanks again guys
 
#20 ·
Driven mine for about a year now with the pan off. Does sound louder as that's what it's job is to quieten the engine nose, it has no ill effect and cools it down in the engine bay a good deal over here.

Might sound silly but have you boys checked your dipstick level as I know they sound 'tappety' when low on oil!
 
#23 ·
Hi,

My AJT (2.5 tdi) made similar (but not quite the same) engine noises : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kxpmGytj2A
It transpired that the timing was out , possibly from a previous cam belt change and that one of the valves was ever so gently kissing a piston. Amazingly, I was lucky that this caused no damage, especially as it ran for some time like this.

Some of the valves have a slight, unusual markings:



You can temporarily remove the vacuum pump pushrod so as to eliminate the pump being the cause of the noise. I do not think that removing a hose would be an adequate check. Its quite easy to do but you do need a crows foot spanner or bent spanner to undo one of the two retaining bolts. The pump is the cylindrical part that you can see at 0.42 in my video (You access it once you have removed the undertray)

You could also have a quick look under the rocker cover to see if there is any obvious damage to the cam or hydraulic tappets.

Given that your T4 needs a new cam belt anyway,if it is not the vac pump I would replace the cam & injection timing belts but be sure to get it timed properly rather than the "tippex" method that could simply copy any timing irregularity. (With hindsight this is what I should have done rather than the "tippex" method, as it would have negated removing the cylinder head).

It would be well worth checking, or depending upon the mileage, replacing the damper pulley at the same time. The damper pulley can be a cause of weird noises too but as you have to redo the cam timing to change the pulley you might as well do the belt (& water pump) at the same time.

Good luck,

Sean
 
#25 ·
Just a thought:
On mine (2.5 ACV 102bhp) there is a heat shield sleeve fully wrapped around the first section of the exhaust. I had a weld break and got a good rattle from that sort of sounded like lots of loose nuts in the silencer/cat convertor but also sounded up above as it comes pretty close to the turbo.

When engines cool you can stretch right in from top or bottom (with belly pan off) and feel if there is any movement on the heat shield. I couldn't get it off so added a bend to it at the top end so it became a close fit again and stopped rattling.
 
#26 ·
OP is back now! Still noisy as hell, although i haven't had much time to work on it yet! First thing i'm going to do is the vacuum pump. Ordered one, so going to do that along with a few other things required for the MOT. Had it up on the ramps yesterday, and it's so damn noisy. Although, it would appear it has 2 noises. I'm convinced one is the vacuum pump, hell of a noise coming directly from that area. The other is more of a squeal though, and i'm tempted to put it down to something to do with the timing belt and or timing as was said a little earlier! It is all due in a few thousand miles, so going to see to that sooner rather than later!

Will be posting some pics of the wagon soon as well. I'll also put an update on here once the vac pump is done! Thanks for all the help so far!

Ben
 
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