i need some help, ok a close friend of mine has a 2000 audi a4 2.8 v6 manual, he bought the car a little while ago car has 330,000kms and ran perfect, previous owner did not take great care of it, so 2 days ago he calls me saying his motor is ticking so i go over there and it was coming from the drivers side head ticking, most likely the valves im guessing? louder when you rev and you couldnt hear it at idle really, well anyways today, the noise got alot worse, it is now a loud ticking noise and after he was driving the car all day he called and his car was down on power, took forever to get to 4k in 1st gear and the loud tick, he pulled over and we let the car sit for an hour or so and we started it and was back to full power and everything just still had the tick, btw there was never any cel's during this. i was just wondering what you guys think it is? i could even get a video if wanted but its coming from the drivers side head and gotten worse. what do you think? thanks alot

zack

 

cam chain tensioner?

 

That's what I'm thinking too.

 

I found that switching to a different weight synthetic oil helped with this issue.

 

also thinking cam chain tensioner, especially if the noise seems to be coming from the rear of the valve cover. I've heard it described as a "slapping sound".

heavier weight oil may help if the sound is "valve tick" but won't resolve the problem of a bad CCT

good luck

 

The ticking sounds like its closer to the front of the drivers side head, and its not a slapping noise its a really loud tick, the valve cover gaskets do leak but i dont believe thats the prOblem, what do you think the power is loss from? And the ticking gets worse when the car warms up,

 

On the driver's side, the cam tensioner is at the front - that's likely where your issue lies.

 

If this guy really is a friend, you need to do an intervention on him. Don't let him drive that. I bought a Passat with that same motor for almost nothing, because the guy kept driving with that same noise. The plastic guide on the cam tensioner had broken, chain went slack, valves hit pistons.

Notice the guide at the bottom of this picture is gone.


Here's what it looked like when I took the guide out. The chain rode on the metal while the pistons were chewing up valves.