Keeps getting worse and worse..

[italianbro53]

Little background

2008 A4 2.0T

About a month ago my engine light came on for about two days, then turned right back off before I could get it checked. Only issues I could tell was a little sluggish and I could hear the exhaust had a go-kart tune to it, mis-firing type sound. But like I said, light went off, everything went back to normal, no issues.

This past week, my buddy was wanting to have some fun with the car and mis-shifted from 2 to 1 first, high rpm. Well the light came back on and the engine was shaking pretty badly. We were able to limp to O'Reilly's and they coded it. Three main codes came up

16395 - Cam 1 Over Advanced
16712 - Knock sensor 1 circuit high
16717 - Knock sensor 2 circuit high

The bad shaking went away after driving it 3 miles

Real sluggish at times when trying to shift. I can have the pedal down all the way and its slowly speeds up.

I took it to Expert Tire, they didn't charge me anything because they don't have the capability or parts to fix it. And I went there cause the nearest Audi/VW Dealership is 1hr 20 mins away. So I have an apt this Friday with the dealership.

Well today, I went to lunch and the Oil Pressure Light came on, and I ended up leaving it in the parking lot and came back after work to check on it.

Still had full amount of oil, no leaks.

Well I was able to get an apt to the nearest Mechanic, which was about less than 2 mile drive. While driving it there, it died once while shifting into 2nd. After I started it up, my buddy who was following said there was white smoke out the exhaust. I then started back up and drove it for 1/2 mile and it died again, the ECS came on and I couldn't start it again. Lucky for me I was going down a hill and the Mech shop was at the bottom of the hill. Once I got there I couldn't start it again.


Has anyone had anything similar to this, also if you need more details or other info let me know. Also I work on diesel engines type equipment for the military, so I know some engine stuff, not completely oblivious to car stuff.

I called the dealership before I picked it up after work and they told me to get it looked at before trying to drive it all the way up to KC. Which I wouldn't have made it far anyways.

[italianbro53]

Little update, they did a compression test, all cylinders zero compression.

That's as far as they got, they didn't want to move further without consulting me. Tomorrow they are going to take a look at the Timing Belt.

[ericpaulyoung]

zero? wow

This is the just the month of bad news here in the b7 section.

[Charles.waite]

seriously. Yikes! And another 2008 bites the dust...

Hard to know exactly what went wrong, but you should have not tried to limp it home. Sucks man!

[4rings5stars]

Sounds like you might have stretched the belt on your adventure there, causing the engine to be out of time. Sounds like it broke after you tried to get it home.

Expensive lesson

[mcpcartier]

Sounds like you might have stretched the belt on your adventure there, causing the engine to be out of time. Sounds like it broke after you tried to get it home.

Expensive lesson

i was thinking the same thing. how many miles? is it the original timing belt? based on the initial diagnosis there isn't much hope for an inexpensive solution.

do you do your own maintenance....you'll probably going down a similar road to jrtrainor....a ton of work.

I think I'll take her easy for a while and enjoy some light crusin.

[shiro1745]

Sounds like the timing is off. Who knows if anything broke in there? I would open it up and realign every thing, timing belt and cam chain. If there's anything broke I'm sure it will be visible.

[PNW Avant]

I think it might be more than a timing belt if he's getting NO compression...

[4rings5stars]

I think it might be more than a timing belt if he's getting NO compression...

No, that's pretty much exactly what it would be.

Snap-->Bend-->Toast

[italianbro53]

I bought it around 50k Miles, and I'm at 81k. Might be original belt, I haven't changed it since owning it. The only other problem I've had on this was a clutch pedal switch. Other than that, it has ran fine.

I know the maintenance schedule says to change Timing belt around 75k, guess you don't want to go over that.

Yeah I should have an update tomorrow afternoon after they open it up.

[4rings5stars]

Yeah I should have an update tomorrow afternoon after they open it up.

Best of luck to you

[italianbro53]

Well I got a small update from them, they said the Timing Belt was fine, so they think its the Camshaft Drive Chain, the mech had to do a little bit more research and would get back with me tomorrow.

Anyone have their chain go bad? Couldn't find much on site or the googles.

[shiro1745]

the chain tensioner wold go bad before the chain intself

[PNW Avant]

No, that's pretty much exactly what it would be.

Snap-->Bend-->Toast

Agreed, timing belt is the root cause. But the internals are cleared F'd up. There was a comment "who knows if anything is broke in there", which I thought was significantly under estimating the damage.

[PNW Avant]

Well I got a small update from them, they said the Timing Belt was fine, so they think its the Camshaft Drive Chain, the mech had to do a little bit more research and would get back with me tomorrow.

Anyone have their chain go bad? Couldn't find much on site or the googles.

If the timing belt is still intact, did then inspect to see if it jumped teeth, as well?

[GAIC Husky]

Agreed, timing belt is the root cause. But the internals are cleared F'd up. There was a comment "who knows if anything is broke in there", which I thought was significantly under estimating the damage.

Exactly this. At a minimum the head is going to have to be rebuilt and I'm sure the piston heads are FUBAR as well.

[4rings5stars]

Well I got a small update from them, they said the Timing Belt was fine, so they think its the Camshaft Drive Chain, the mech had to do a little bit more research and would get back with me tomorrow.

Anyone have their chain go bad? Couldn't find much on site or the googles.

In all likelyhood, your pistons just bitch slapped a bunch of your valves. Making this slightly more difficult and expensive than spark plugs

[italianbro53]

Bigger Update for you guys

So I didn't hear from my mech yesterday so I had the day off and I decided to visit them to see what was up. I got there and here is what there notes said....


"The bolt holding the rear exhaust camshaft pulley broke off causing the rear timing chain to come off. Once that happened the intake camshaft no longer turned and the pistons came up and contacted the valves. Some of the rocker arms are just laying inside the cylinder head and the other ones are wedged between the camshaft and cylinder head. The rear journal on the that side is melted. The melted journal that the camshaft rides in is part of the cylinder head. that means the head is ruined. Long story short it is the head, camshafts, timing chains, timing belt, camshaft pulleys, basically the other top half of this engine must be replaced all because one bolt failed."

He wrote down a bunch of parts that would have to be replaced.

I called up CarMax to see if I still had my warranty and thank god I do. I'll be getting it towed from this mom and pop mech shop to the Audi Dealership up in KC. I just gotta pay the deductible.

[Charles.waite]

Sounds like a lot of stuff, but really just find a decent shape used/rebuild head and you're good to go. Hard to come by, and probably $1k or so, but still. Sucks man!

[papadelogan]

I called up CarMax to see if I still had my warranty and thank god I do. I'll be getting it towed from this mom and pop mech shop to the Audi Dealership up in KC. I just gotta pay the deductible.

Man that is awesome news for you!! I hope you bought a lottery ticket for last night (but I hope more that I won!! haha)

[mcpcartier]

excellent news.....

I was thinking that your cam follower gave out and it's pieces got jammed in your cam chain. Turns out there is another weak spot in the 2.0T power train that results in catastrophic failure...ughhhh.

Never heard of this bolt giving out and seems like a strange bolt to give out....basically rotating with little real load (cam to cam rotation). Wonder if the sequence of failure is a little different.....loss of lubrication....leads to journal seize....leads to bolt snapping. Be nice to know root cause if someone can figure it out for you.

Not that it matters to you at this point...it should be repaired for the cost of your deductible which is awesome for you.

[mr shickadance]

how did your buddy mis-shift 2-1 at high rpm, i thought there were gates that prevented you from down shifting into 1st at speed no?

all other gears your fucked with, but i though 1st and reverse are both impossible to get the car into when you are traveling at speed

[Tyler8]

how did your buddy mis-shift 2-1 at high rpm, i thought there were gates that prevented you from down shifting into 1st at speed no?

all other gears your fucked with, but i though 1st and reverse are both impossible to get the car into when you are traveling at speed

Yeah, I can't get my car into first gear unless I'm going about 15mph or less.

[Charles.waite]

Yeah, I can't get my car into first gear unless I'm going about 15mph or less.

Yea but if you're trying to "powershift" from 2 to 3 and slam it into 1st through brute force, say goodbye to your synchros. On normal driving its pretty hard together it back into first from any speed above 15mph.

[mr shickadance]

powershifting...... not even once

[Tyler8]

Yea but if you're trying to "powershift" from 2 to 3 and slam it into 1st through brute force, say goodbye to your synchros. On normal driving its pretty hard together it back into first from any speed above 15mph.

Yeah exactly. I've accidentally hit the guard on 1st while trying to go to 3rd and luckily it stops the shift, I couldn't imagine shifting so forcefully that it slams through the guard.

[italianbro53]

So a long waited update.

So they determined that the oil pump chain broke causing the oil pump to stop working causing the top half of the engine to fail and also throwing a rod. After a month of the Dealership and Warranty company going back and forth they finally decided that an engine replacement and not a 47 part replacement would be the cheaper thing to do.

So its been 15 days since the dealership has had the engine and they are having problems with getting it to work, today I called and they said its mis-firing and they don't know if its there fault for it or the engine came like that.

So its been 54 days without my car. Word to the wise make sure if you get a warranty with a place that the contract gives you more than 7 days for a rental car. I couldn't get the car until the warranty place approved the engine replacement. Among other things this has been a big pain in my butt. I am currently living in Missouri and will be moving to Pennsylvania, and the only thing holding me back is this car. I have no income currently cause I separated from the Air Force at the beginning of this month.

Yay me..