So my car was acting weird yesterday and making a weird sound.... I have decided that it is time to Seafoam it. The car has about 145k on it and I doubt it has been done before. I am excited to do this tonight.

On a side note, I was having AC issues a while back (blowing warm at idle). It is due to the secondary fan not coming on. I will also diagnose this tonight to see if it's a bad fan or ?... I am hoping it's just a bad fan.

 

are you going to seafoam the crankcase and the fuel? if so i'd like to know how you did the crankcase.

 

Seafoam scares the crap out of me. Post back and let us know how it went.

Audacity, there's a good DIY on youtube for seafoam. Plus the kid doing it gets stung by a bee at the end of it, definitely worth watching

 

If you may have a sludge issue to the point that it is restricting flow to the head and making it noisy, or a carbon build-up issue bad enough to cause excessively noisy valves, seafoam isn't gunna make a dent. No liquid can chissel away mass carbon or act like drano for sludge. It's more of a preventative thing. Make sure to replace or clean your plugs after you run it through the intake.

It could be your cam chain tensioner on the way out. Post a video with sound if you can.

 

I am just planning on doing the typical DIY that is posted everywhere (some through the front vacuum line and some through the back vacuum line, turn it off for a while then run it for a while, etc.)

I don't know it there's sludge, or excessive carbon build-up, or what the noise was... All I know is that I have been meaning to do this since I bought the car and hopefully it helps with something..... and doesn't hurt anything.

What does the cam chain tensioner sound like when it's going out? The noise I heard was a loud, almost knocking sound and I couldn't place it (location-wise). I messed around with it, it's speed increased with rpms and had a slight change in speed / loudness when I pressed the clutch in, but not enough to make me think it is clutch related. It only happened for a few minutes about 4 times yesterday and when I finally had time to mess with it, it went away and I was unable to get it to come back.

Here's the story:
I left work and drove to get one of my boys (mostly freeway, mostly uphill), temperature was about 104... coolant temp and oil temp were normal. After I got him, I jumped in the car and drove to get my other son. About 15 miles freeway and 8 miles city. I parked the car, left it running with the a/c on since my son fell asleep. I got my other son and when I came out to my car it was making this sound. I wasn't happy, but I drove home and parked it in the drive way. It was making the sound so i popped the hood for a better listen, but it didn't help me at all. The sound then went away, so I closed the hood. When I went to turn it off, the sound came back. I turned it off and left it alone for about 30 minutes. I then brought it into the garage and started to mess around with it, but the sound wouldn't come back... I drove it around real quick and still no sound. No other issues, drives normal, boost isn't affected, no CEL, etc.

 

Well assuming oil level is correct, next time see if the knocking originates from the firewall side (back) of the engine on top. The cam cahin tensioner is there, is a common replacement piece, and can make a knocking sound that should change with engine speed. The tensioner just loses tension and then the chain starts to slap or drag on the guide rails. It'll be more audible at idle or during low rev's as opposed to when cruising.

 

Hmmm, this is some good info.... I wanted to say that the sound was coming from the back / top. I will of course research the cam chain tensioner and it's replacement.... but for now, is it a fairly simple thing to do? any other stuff to replace while doing it?

 

Sounds like you've pretty much got the whole seafoam thing under control, but i figured I'd show you this DIY anyways since its specifically for 1.8 b5's.
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ow-To-Sea-Foam

 

I thought you were supposed to do this right before an oil change. Off topic question but where are you guys getting the vaccuum line that is really thick? All the lines I can find are thin and seem like they would collapse or melt.

 

If you are running it in the crank then ya, do an oil change within 100 miles in my opinion. I can't remember what the writeup says but I wouldn't use more than a half can in the crank. Use the other half in the tank. Another half at most through the intake and then change plugs.