New to the forum. Hoping someone can shed some light on a recent mechanical issue that I have been faced with on my recently acquired car, an '06 A4 2.0T. It was intermitantly showing the check engine light. The wholesaler that sold me the car, at a good price, directed me to their local shop who cleared the "Audi only" code and told me I didn't tighten the gas cap correctly. Upon closer observation there is a warning on the actual gas cap indicating this issue, fair enough, problem solved. NOT. After $600 in mostly labour and two visits to the local Audi dealer they have advised that the cam follower running on the valve cam shaft for the high pressure fuel pump is missing and the cam is now damaged. This apparently is retarding the amount of throw on the shaft for the pump to make the necessary pressure to feed the fuel requirement under acceleration. This is why the car falls on its face when entering traffic, its takes upwards to 20 - 30 seconds to get "gas" again and the check engine light illuminates. The repair quote was ... $2300.00 I had them put it back together as is.

Here's my question, has anyone else experienced this?? A private shop told me that this is a problem with the 2.0T FSI engine. They all have the issue around 80,000 - 100,000KMS. The valve cam shaft and fuel pump has to be replaced at major expense, this has also been happening to some of the VW turbos (and diesels) as well. Any input would be appreciated.

 

I see on Audizine that this is not a new issue! Common B7 A4 Problems/Issues & Solutions #4.

 

Wow! Your cam follower was not in there? That is huge problem. What you can do is check the fuel pump shaft for sugnifficant wear which it probably does. If you want to try the cheap fix and replace the pump with a used stocker, new cam follower and see if that helps. You may have a damaged cam but it may be better than it was. This is a cheap fix and something you can for sure do yourself. If you have to change the CAM then you are screwed. Hard and expensive. I would be pissed at who sold you that car.

 

I purchased a 2006 A4 during the middle of the year (~40k miles). The vehicle was still under factory warranty. The vehicle had issues under high acceleration and ultimately would trip a code. I took it in to the dealer (same one that sold me the vehicle) and asked them specifically to check the cam shaft and follower. They replaced the high pressure fuel pump control module and then high pressure fuel pump without even checking the cam shaft or follower. I kept pressing them, so they finally inspected and replaced both (they were worn). Long story short, this is a known issue.

 

how much is a cam follower and is there any DIY on it?

 

I haven't done this yet myself, so I can't guarantee it's accuracy, but it looks pretty detailed: http://picasaweb.google.com/BJ.McGee...llowerInstall#

I believe the price of the follower is about $50.

 

I've been doing alot of research on the cam follower saga. Some have experienced failure, some have experienced a little wear and one guy...after 100k miles took out his original cam follower and found it to look like new.

Maybe this has to do more with oil quality and oil change frequency. Synthetic oils in turbo engines wear out faster. I change mine every 5000 miles. The cam follower is exposed to the engine oil. By the way, synthetic oil is the only oil you should be using. I use Mobil 1 0W-40 all year round. No problem.

 

I call shenanigans. Audi says every 10k on the oil change and i'd bet my left ******** they actually did research on their expinsive *** engines that they are liable for on a major failure up to at least 50k miles or more.

I agree mobile 1 is what is needed and maybe 7k miles for a change if you are paranoid but at these prices, AUDI's 10k interval is good enough for me. Why would a company use a 10k interval which is more than most any company I have ever heard of if they were not sure of it's durability?

 

and BMW has 12,500 mile (20,000 km) intervals for oil changes. i don't doubt their decision to stick to such high interval changes but maybe it's a blanket statement from them for all of their engines. it's a fact that turbos are tougher on oil. to use 10-13k mile intervals for naturally aspirated engines-ok that's fair enough. but for all engines, including turbo, i'd rather play it safe and change it more often.

i used to change the oil in my naturally aspirated v8 for years, changing it every 5000 miles. when i drained it, it almost looked like fresh oil. looking at the oil from the 2.0T-it's just black all the time. the oil i used for the v8 was mobil 1-just as i'm using for the audi.

oh well, this is something that will always be up to personal preference and/or if you intend on keeping your car for many years and want some piece of mind.

 

Thank you