Just recently I noticed a knock or "clatter" coming from myengine(2002A4quattro3.0, 105K miles)at low speeds, under30 MPH and not noticeable on the highway. The noise is actually rhythmic instead of constant and has continued from tank to tank, so its not a bad batch of fuel. I've read through a dozen posts about this, and some have suggested oil pressure problems, knock sensor problems, and valve problems. I'm going to bring it to the shop and see whats up... but wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this and can give mea heads up on what I should expect. ShouldI have the feeling of impending doom? Is this a huge repair?

Thanks

 

Probably not a huge repair. All 3.0L engines have a chatter noise upon cold start up and can continue that type noise while driving if the oil feed to one of the cam adjusters gets clogged. Chances are its gonna be a bad cam shaft adjuster. The 3.0L engine has four seperate adjusters.

 

Just wanted to follow up with the result of this noise, in case others have thissymptom with their Audi.

Let me start by saying that I no longer have the car. I guess you can imagine that it was not necessarily a "simple fix". The Audi service center told me that this "clattering" sound was due to abnormally worn bearings. As a result, this caused damage to the cams and the cylinder heads in short time. They first asked me to call for a ride home, because they said it was unsafe to drive in its current state. After asking why, they told me that it was in eminent danger of seizing. The noise was not "that bad" it was a suttle clank or tick, so I could not imagine that this amount of damage had occurred. I asked how this was possible, as I had records for every single maintenance schedule, and had not missed one. I also never "raced" the damn car. Their response was that this was only the second time they've seen this problem, and there was no reasonable explanation for these parts to wear abnormally. I bought it certified pre-owned... so, who knows what the previous owner did to it.

The cost to fix it was a bit over $8,000... and I would be out of a car for a solid week. After several failed attempts to work this number down and argue with the service manager about extending my warranty that only expired 1 month ago... I decided to dump the car and trade it for another... and no,I did not buy another Audi!

 

yea its obvious that it sounds like rod bearings...

cause it follows crank speed and goes away at higher speeds...


and its unfortunate that the dealer wasn't willing to work w/ you... but you need to understand... CPO is like new... but NO manufacturer out there can check the bearing condition during its inspection. Not Mercedes or BMW its just a bad situation that happened and its sad to see you lean away from Audi because of it.