Hi all. First time poster here. Purchased a 2006 Mk5 GTi from a private seller 3 weeks ago, after taking the car for a 30-40 minute test drive I fell in love! Told the guy I wanted it, we struck a deal, signed the paper work and off I drove home with a smile from ear to ear. That's the gushing part of the story over. Everything was amazing up until about a week ago when the car started making this loud horrendous tapping/ticking/clunking noise from the engine. Carried out all the various checks like checking oil level, that sort of thing. The previous owner had the cam belt and all relevant parts changed a month prior to me purchasing the car along with a full service along with 4 brand new tyres and new pads and disks all around, all the paper work that came with the car proves this so everything checks out and is all above board. I've taken the car to a VW specialist in my area and they said it sounds like metal to metal contact but of course will have to strip at least the top part of the engine to investigate further. My question is had anyone ever had this or experienced this type of noise before? I'm going to use the term sounds like a bag of old nails because that's exactly what is sounds like. Non of these noises or issues however were present during test drive made sure I took it out for the time I stated at the start of this thread to get the car up to a good running temperature, it was all running very normal and nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a shame this has started to happen after i purchased it, it's currently with the VW specialist they say they can look it Tuesday at the very earliest, they have supplied me with a courtesy car but I always feel so uneasy about these sorts of things, this is my first ever GTI so wanted my first experience as a GTi owner to be an enjoyable one. I do have a video of the engine running but at the moment can't see how to upload it. Hoping many of you here will be able to tell me what it is. Also been told it's definitely not the cam follower on the HPFP, as the guy at the garage said sounds like metal to metal contact and I have been advised NOT to drive the car hence why I left it with them. Thanks in advance
I'd have gone for the HPFP follower, or the timing chain on that end of the engine. It's a fairly common issue.
Update: Got the call earlier in the week saying that the previous owner has taken the camshafts out to clean them along with with the hydraulic lifters and rocker arms but he hadn't fitted one of the cam shafts back in correctly which had caused slight damage the shaft, some of the lifters and rocker arms. Also the cam belt was new but because of the incorrect fitment of the cam shaft the cam belt was starting to fray. So whilst the previous owner had good intentions taking everything out to clean it all it's actually caused more harm that good. So having all 16 lifters replaced along with rocker arms and 1 new camshaft and a new cam belt. Bit of a nightmare as this was an unexpected cost, no noises were present at the time of test drive and I test drove the car for around 40 minutes. It's unfortunate but I've always loved the MK5 GTi and always wanted one when I was in my teens (now in my 30's) so to me it's worth putting the money into getting it repaired. Should get it back running like new and have many more years of fun driving ahead of me. Total cost with parts and labour: £1150
