Oil pump drive chain, fitting cost

[ihs61]

Hi
I posted a question yesterday about a load (ish) rattle from the engine area of my A4 Avant 55 plate 2.0 tdi S-Line. (130 K mile Audi Hist) This can't be detected from inside the car. Along with the noise there apears to be a bit of vibration tranfered into the car this can be felt on the gera knob and slightly through the steering wheel.

With thanks to a member of here, it has been suggested to resreach the 'Oil pump drive chain' (unless anyone else has a possible theory)

I have done this and it's frightened the crap out of me with the potential costs involved.

Trying to look at the possitives, I have looked at Oil chain kits pump kits (around £250 retail) these include genuine Audi tensioner, sprocket and non Audi chain as these are available fro Audi.
These kits are also available with a crankshaft sprocket for a whopping £200 extra and is advised to fit or at least have your checked.

Has anyone fitted one of these kits ? and if so do they do the job ! My car is still running spot on with no oil warning light issues ?

Time and cost wise has anyone an idea of whats involved in fitting the kit, I assume its a ramp and remove the sump to gain access.

Lastly as mine is running fine and according to the prvious owner has been making this sound for a while (at the last service the garage said just ignor it ! obviously they did not know what it was) how long can they go on for ! can I ignor it for a while or is it simply a ticking bomb !

This is my third Audi A4 Avant (all blue !) and I am very concerned over the potential costs involved as I have just bought the car and over stretched my self to get it. How can a car company such as Audi get away with such a massive **** up.

My privious A4s were 1.9 tdis B5 and I was looking for a late B6 but this one came up, I did not know about these problem with the 2.0 engines as I was not considering a B7. How gutted am I, and of course so must many, many more.

Regards far any help/advice

Ian

[Audi tech]

Unfortunately if your car has got the chain drive oil pump then it needs swapping to a geared drive audi no longer produce the chain drive parts, what happens is the chain tensioner becomes weak hense the rattling and usually the oil warning light is on, IF IT IS CHAIN DRIVEN this means removal of the bumper and the front panel which houses all your radiators and headlamps etc, cam belt removal as crankshaft pulley req removal and crank oil seal and housing as the chain drive for pump is situated behind this on the crankshaft, Oxy Acetylene is req to heat up the chain pulley to remove it! This is a big job i have undertaken two of these jobs and they are time consuming more than anything!!

Do you know yet weather it is a chain driven oil pump or if it has gone to geared driven?

Have you had an oil pressure test carried out this will confirm if the oil pump is at fault!

[ihs61]

Hi
Many thanks for your depressing reply !

My engine code is BLB127626, and chassis WAUZZZ8E46A 081....

I have read on a pistonheads thred that vehicles with chassis numbers WAUZZZ8E4 '6' A ...
are the latter gear set ups, can anyone confirm this ?

Mind you if it is gear driven, thats one headache out of the way, but whats causing my vibration ?

Cheers Ian

[Audi tech]

That could be the balance shaft which is part of the oil pump thats why its so expensive!

[ihs61]

I can get a new chain driven kit (Gen Audi tensioner, and bottom sprocket, OE spec chain and Powermax Camshaft sprocket) from Powermax Engineering, Ireland + fitting from my local indy Audi specialist for £1000, (inc new timing belt, tensioner and water pump etc) or the Audi conversion fitted for £1600, is it worth the extra £600 ?
I plan to keep the car for 3 to 4 years and I cover about 8K miles each year
Ian

[Lowflyingphotos]

If you plan on keeping the car,I would convert to gear drive,If not you could just replace the chain and tensioner to patch it up (i.e bodge it) Theres always the fit a complete low milege used or recon engine option too,..

[Crasher]

The chain tensioner (03G 115 124 D, £50.60) has come back into stock after being on back order but stupidly the roller chain itself (03G 115 230 £22.14) is still unavailable although I am sure with a little research a suitable replacement could be found. Unfortunately converting to the spur gear drive system is also not an option until the beginning of December as the balancer shaft has been on back order for over a month now. I have a car sitting on one of my lifts with the subframe hanging down and bottom of the engine all stripped down awaiting the parts. We took it apart, assessed the damage (broken chain tensioner and scuffed chain) and then ordered the bits (sump, dip stick tube, gears, balancer shaft etc) for the next day, about £1200 worth of parts plus cam belt kit, water pump and some fasteners. All turned up the next morning except the balancer shaft assembly (03G 103 295 AL, £923.16). The customer is getting understandably fraught now and so I resorted to emailing Audi Germany to get some help and they are saying the balancer will be into the UK on the 29th of November. We charge around £2300 to do this job.

[ihs61]

Many thanks to all that have reply to my thred.

My car is in the garage on the ramp and in bits, I have been told that the Audi conversion kit is available inc the balance shaft.
The chain and sprocket kit will be available by the end of the week from Powermax Engineering. (They are just waiting for the top sprockets, not from Audi, they make there own)

My question still remains the same, £1000 for the chain and sprockets etc fitted or £1600 for the Audi worm gear system.

Which way should I go ?

[Crasher]

If the oil pump drive peg fails after a rebuild of the chain drive has been carried out, the only person carrying the can will be you...

[ihs61]

So what 'Crasher' is saying is the Audi worm gear balancer shaft conversion is the best option (even better if they had them in stock)

[Crasher]

Yes, the spur gear system and hopefully I am at the top of the list for the first batch due in, if not I will scream and scream until I am thsick!

[ihs61]

Thanks for advice, I will get onto the garage first thing. I doubt they will be happy about my car taking up a ramp for another 2/ 3 weeks esp if Powermax keep to their word that the chain and sprocket will be available by the end of the week
Ian

[ihs61]

Spoke to my garage this morning and althought they were assured by Audi that they had all the parts in stock, guess what ? no balancer shaft.
However they were not to bothered about keeping my car for another 2 or 3 weeks to get the conversion as they have agreed that it is far better than re-fitting a replacement chain and sprocket set up.
It's just a waiting game now, had I gone with the chain set up I would have been back on the road next week !
Crusher has said that it's a £2300 job, I wonder why I have been quoted £1600 (inc timing belt, water pump) lets hope they don't spring a nasty suprise on me
Ian

[Crasher]

I don't know why they have quoted you £1600; it barely covers the cost of the parts!

Cam belt kit £184.80
Water pump £45.29
Balancer shaft £923.16
Sump £110.41
Crank gear £37.92
Intermediate gear £26.76
Intermediate gear bolts £2.68
Oil seal £20.33
Oil filter £10
Oil £40
Coolant £20
Dip stick tube £43.38
Special VAG white RTV sump sealant £20.46
Various subframe bolts £20

[markspark71]

I don't know why they have quoted you £1600; it barely covers the cost of the parts!

Cam belt kit £184.80
Water pump £45.29
Balancer shaft £923.16

Sump £110.41
Crank gear £37.92
Intermediate gear £26.76
Intermediate gear bolts £2.68
Oil seal £20.33
Oil filter £10
Oil £40
Coolant £20

Dip stick tube £43.38
Special VAG white RTV sump sealant £20.46
Various subframe bolts £20

Hi im not saying the list is wrong in any way at all but can you explain why the to items in bold need to be changed i do understand the sump has to be removed but can it not be reused ?? (im no machanic im just looking into getting mine fixed its been in my garage for nearly 2 years no i haven't the money to fix atm):zx11:

[Crasher]

The sump and dipstick have to be changed because the different design of the balancer shaft dictates it.