1.4 BBY help with a noisy engine

[mrbroons]

First off I would like to apologise, I have written this in English as my German is atrocious.

 

I have a 1.4 BBY Papaya Colour Storm which I love. It has 176,000km (roughly) and it has had an issue since I have owned it. The engine is lacking power and has a rattle coming from it rising and falling with the revs. Now I have spent a lot of time looking into this issue and have run into the usual comments but no solution:

 

1) They all sound like that - they don't, I have heard very quiet BBY and AUA engines

2) These engines are badly made and will fail?

3) It is the tappets - which I have replaced (all)

4) The wrong oil has been at some point causing damage (I had tried engine flushes with no effect and always use VW spec oils - damage may have occurred prior to my ownership I admit)

5) It is worn piston rings - I have completed a engine compression test and all cylinders are >16 PSI

6) It is piston slap - possibly.

 

My question however is that given the very brief view of the issue is there any guidance that the forum has on how to troubleshoot and fix this issue. I've had all 4 Colour Storms both diesel and petrols but I love the Papaya one, but I would like it run properly and I am running out of confidence in my abilities to fix this issue and I would like to throw myself at your mercy to help me keep this lovely A2 on the road in Scotland.

 

Any help you can give me would be gratefully received.

 

Regards,

 

MrB.

 

 

 

 

[Pater B]

Lovely collection there! And a Papaya Cs always hits my soft spot ;-) 

 

Regarding the noise: A video/soundfile would be handy. 1.4 petrols really can sound quite rough/diesely - i had a few to compare. Only the late BBY engines from late 2004 on tend to sound considerably quieter. 

 

I had comparable issues and also changed the tappets on my 2003 Bby - no real change in sound though.

 

Regarding the Power issue: When Do you notice it?  Mine had a rough idle and was lacking power on taking up revs, no real problems at the top end. In my case it was an offset cam belt.

 

[mrbroons]

Many thanks for the quick reply.

 

My car is a late 2004 car, registered in September. The back exhaust is damaged at the moment so I cannot get a sound file for you at present as it's too loud, but this should be fixed on Monday when the parts arrive.

 

The power and hesitation is esp at low speed, at the top of the rev range it seems ok but noisy. Offset cambelt??? That may be something I need to look into, would the ECU not pickup on the cambelt issue or is a visual check required?

 

regards,

 

MrB

[Pater B]

Doesn't Show up on scan. You need to Check if the holes in the two camshaft wheels align with the holes in the camshaft Cover, use 2 8mm drills as a replacement for the original tool  - See "Pater bs Motorinstandsetzungsthread"  for pictures. Shouldn't be the cause of unusual noise though. More likely to cause rough idle and Lack of Power. 

 

Regarding rattle: Check the 2 catalytic converters - sometimes The cores disintegrate, come loose and plug up the exhaust = rattling and Power loss. Pre-cat is in the exhaust manifold, Main cat under the car. 

[mrbroons]

I will get the timing checked out as it's never been quite right and I seem to get a build up of black soot/oil in the throttle body quite regularly which also doesn't help. The noise seems to be coming from the block/head as that's why I replaced the tappets, but didn't make much of a difference. As the exhaust is coming off this week I'll get the cats checked aswell. Many thanks for your help :-)

[Romulus]

The silence in this topic could indicate that the silence returned also in your BBY?

[mrbroons]

Ha ha, if only that were the case. Apologies, I have had a couple of things to work on and the car is still to be fixed. The timing is going to be checked in the next week or so. Once I have an update (worth sharing) I'll put up a reply. 

[felix.bauer]

@Pater B since this winter my AUA seems to rattle too. Is there any way to determine that this is coming whether from the pre- or the maincat?

[Pater B]

Precat: Have someone rev the engine and listen at the open bonnet. Main cat: from under the car: shake/tap it...