I'm driving home today and out of nowhere my check engine light starts flashing. The car was still driving normal but the I was about 10 minutes from home.

As I come to the last few stops by my house (shortly after the light starts flashing) I'm noticing that it is idleing rough at slow speeds. It still drives and accelerates kinda normally, but just with a slight hesitation.

When I pull into my drive way and actually listen to the engine, it sounds like it's gonna fall apart. A loud noise coming from the engine compartment.

I pop the hood and I can't tell if the noise is coming from a pulley or from inside the engine!

No other light came on in the dash and the gauges all read normal.

Can any of you give me any advice as to what this might be?

 

Well DON'T drive the car whatever you do and DON'T turn the engine on either. How many miles does your car have. If it has between 60K - 80K miles and you haven't changed the timing belt stay AWAY and get it towed to a shop.

I have no idea but if it is your timing belt and that snaps you are in DEEP ****.

I <3 caps

 

If it sounds that bad, pop the timing belt covers and make sure everything is OK before doing any more diagnosing. There is a SMALL chance that the belt has slipped and something is failing causing it to do so. An out of time engine sounds a bit like a diesel and runs rough.

Do you know how to check? Really quickly here - turn the crank using 24mm socket until mark lines up with arrow, then take a level or straight edge across both banks and make sure that the cam alignment plate holes all line up in a nice row.

I would be hesitant to investigate by running the engine unless you confirm timing is still OK. You may have dodged the bullet!

 

Thank you for the quick reply guys. The noise im hearing is a louder noise almost like screeching/metal noise. Problem is I cant tell if its coming from the actual engine or from in front of the engine. It's pretty loud. Is there any way for me to pull the code without the vag-com?

 

well flashing cel is an indication of a cylinder misfire, what you need to do first and foremost is acquire a vag tool and scan it for codes. Dont start messin with too much until you have it scanned and have a better idea where to start looking for the problem

 

Where can I get one quickly?

 

where are you?

 

best solution is to find a site member near to you and see if you can use his/hers until you can get one for yourself

 

@Leeer - Where are you located?

 

Crap, I'm stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere....Honolulu HI. Thank you again guys for the attmepted help here!