Hey guys!
This is my first (second including the hello world post) post on here, i've found a ton of information for helping troubleshoot my 2001 Audi A4, but now i've run out of answers and can't seem to find my way out of the fog... so i decided to ask you guys for help! (we can't do all things on our own...) also, there is TL;DR at the bottom
Background: i just purchased a 2001 Audi A4 1.8T 5-Speed from some guy who's parents owned it before him (and took what looks like great care of it) they just replaced the timing belt too by the way. on the way home the oil light came on. i got it home and replaced my oil level sensor and did a oil pressure test which yielded pretty neutral results; i have oil pressure around 30 PSI but it didn't seem to rise a whole lot with RPM... i should note, that i believe it had about 0.5 to 1 quart too much oil in it when i drained all the oil (not including that which rested in the oil filter. I turned it on and was pleased to see that there was no oil light; took it for a drive and had plenty of power, smooth idle and was thoroughly relieved to see that i was even able to get up to highway speeds without any issue at all. all the sudden, the oil light came on and beeped at me. because i distrusted my oil pressure switch (i didn't believe the oil level sending unit was what caused the initial problem, but maybe removing and putting back in the oil pressure switch was what caused the light to go away) and i had a friend in the car scanning the computer while i was driving (the scan gave me p0340, Camshaft position sensor A Circuit Bank 1 or Single Sensor) i concluded it wasn't the oil so i kept driving; i was only a few blocks from home anyway... I know, i understand the folly of my ways now and have learned a valuable lesson... at any rate, i stopped at a stop sign and the car was having a really rough idle and the spark advance was bouncing between 1 and 8 degrees like the car was trying to find what worked as it desperately tried to stay alive... i got a little way through the stop sign and it died. i pushed it all the way home, got it up on ramps and decided to hit the books...
in researching everything i can about the code P0340, i learned that it is most likely a timing issue; either bad cam sensor, maybe crankshaft issue, timing belt could be a tooth off, something like that. so i checked my timing. i aligned the notches and-... well, they were all aligned.. i pulled my #1 spark plug and stuck a clean rod in there and watched it as i stopped the crankshaft on the up-most swing and then double checked- my lines were pretty darn close to perfect (i checked the pully connected to the cam and the crankshaft pully to verify the timing belt was correctly installed). the next thing i did was swap out my hall effect sensor (camshaft position sensor). still wouldn't start up (no codes though) i did a reboot by disconnecting the battery and shorting the + and - after letting it sit for about 10 minuites, then let it sit for another 5 just to make sure. wouldn't start up but....
when i tried to rev the engine, i heard a little pop and a puff of white smoke blew out of what looked like a region near the intake manifold... i could not find ANY reason for this except for a little elbow connected to something which i think is connected to the intake manifold. (really odd... but it didn't do it any more for the durration of my attempts so i couldn't find where it was coming from, also, no codes still) at any rate, nothing happened so i decided to test for spark/fueld/compression. what i found was i had both spark and fuel, but no compression.. absolutely. no. compression. not on any of the cylinders.. must be the gague! so i tested it on my buddies car; compression up the wazoo! so gauge was good.... 1.8t; not so good...
i read a possible reason for this is if my cam chain jumped a tooth or something and that would cause my valves to all get pressed down when they shouldn't be thus causing a catastrophic case of every valve failure! the first thing i did was run out and pop off my valve cover to count the number of rollers and i counted 16... which is the correct number...(at least i think...) i tried to push down my hydrolic chain tensioner and wasn't able to push it down more than about 1mm.. so what am i missing?
sorry for the long post... i find that more information is better than a quick synopsis when it comes to diagnosing.. and i've done a LOT of research and am trying to give you all the information up front...
Summary TL;DR: current state of vehicle: no compression in any cylinder, timing belt looks installed properly. cam chain proper spacing evident...
Possible issues with motor: all valves bent... but how??
possible cause: cam chain jumped a tooth on one cam, then on the other cam to hid improper spacing. is that possible?? have you ever heard of that? what else can i be missing? i'm not mentally prepared yet to remove my head to verify valves but valves seem much more likely than the piston rings on all four cilynders...
at any rate, any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Tooffy
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