VW TDI Really Loud

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Nick1994

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My aunt has a 2004 VW Beetle TDI 1.9 with 153k miles. It runs fantastic and has plenty of power as always and is always maintained. It had been really loud the last year or two I'd say. I realize it is a diesel but it almost sounds like a little backhoe, not like it runs bad but like a Caterpillar tractor. Especially in parking garages you can hear it. Is it just breaking in? Always dealer serviced as well, and brand of fuel doesn't make a difference.
 
Everything sounds louder in a parking garage... If it runs fine i'm sure it sounds fine.
 
Any CEL's? Some of those vehicles had problematic EGR coolers and they would crack which lead to exhaust leakage and subsequent noise.

A very thorough visual inspection should reveal any external issues.

Don't rule out the possibility of the valvetrain having issues on those engines either. A worn camshaft will lead to noisy operation without triggering a CEL. It's usually the exhaust lobe that wears out of specification.

There are my two guesses...
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I have noticed over the years that some high mileage diesels exhibit this phenomena.

Noticed it first many years ago on a mates Peugeot 306 diesel.

And have also noticed on more than one high mileage Passat

Always wondered why this was.

Perhaps it is just some form of resonance.

Caused by cumilative wear and tear.

Would be nice to actually know what caused it.

Though i always avoided cars at the auction that had this tendancy as i figured they may have had a hard life.
 
Many VW diesel engines use multiple injection "pulses" to keep idle and low RPM operation quiet. It's possible that the injectors are not spraying well during the "micro" multiple injection cycles at idle/low RPM.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Many VW diesel engines use multiple injection "pulses" to keep idle and low RPM operation quiet. It's possible that the injectors are not spraying well during the "micro" multiple injection cycles at idle/low RPM.


If I'm not mistaken the 04's didn't have that technology. The newer ones do though.
 
Originally Posted By: sasilverbullet
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Many VW diesel engines use multiple injection "pulses" to keep idle and low RPM operation quiet. It's possible that the injectors are not spraying well during the "micro" multiple injection cycles at idle/low RPM.


If I'm not mistaken the 04's didn't have that technology. The newer ones do though.


The 2004 should be the 1.9L BEW (AKA PD) engine. The PD engine does have the unit injector. The unit injector is actuated directly by the camshaft, via a roller, and the injection cycle is controlled by bleeding off the fuel from the "unit injector". The PD engine does have 5 or 6 separate injection pulses at idle.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: sasilverbullet
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Many VW diesel engines use multiple injection "pulses" to keep idle and low RPM operation quiet. It's possible that the injectors are not spraying well during the "micro" multiple injection cycles at idle/low RPM.


If I'm not mistaken the 04's didn't have that technology. The newer ones do though.


The 2004 should be the 1.9L BEW (AKA PD) engine. The PD engine does have the unit injector. The unit injector is actuated directly by the camshaft, via a roller, and the injection cycle is controlled by bleeding off the fuel from the "unit injector". The PD engine does have 5 or 6 separate injection pulses at idle.

Ah - the pumpe duse TDI. That's notorious for VW's requirement of a 5W-40 motor oil meeting their 505.01 spec.

The one thing I heard about that oil was speculation that too frequent oil changes might actually result in faster wear of the cams. Supposedly one or two cams would get worn down. Nobody can pinpoint exactly why, but it could be a matter of the wrong oil being used as well as the design where certain cams may be getting less oil.

cam7a.jpg


http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/camshaft-inspection-replace-vw-tdi.htm
 
Well I hope it's got the proper oil spec, always serviced at the same VW dealer, at 10k mile OCI's
 
Originally Posted By: irad
Check the flex joint on the exhaust pipe.


I agree this is a very common wear item.


As for the dealer putting the specified VW
oil in there....very iffy. 50/50 chance you received the correct spec or just some ordinary 5w-30.


I would actually go back and check your work orders if you kept them to see if they printed the oil spec there.
 
On my PD powered Jetta, I used M1 5W-40 TDT oil, changed at 5000 miles. The UOA results were far, far better "wear metals per 1000 miles" done that way.

Somewhere on the TDI forums, others determined the very same thing, with TDT being a favorite oil.
 
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Any increases in smoke?

I have been told a diesel with worn injector nozzles will create more noise and more smoke due to bad fuel atomization.

I am not sure if the 2004 Beetle had PD injectors, or if it used an electronic distributor pump.
 
It all came down to metallurgy in the camshaft, using TDT might extend it's life but if your cam was going to fail it was going too.

No oil can fix that. I also think that with dealers you never knew if you were really getting 505.01 especially during the first year in the US. It could have been 505.00 or 502 all day long.

Try a can of diesel purge and see if it quiets the injectors down a bit.
 
Those VW TDI have inherent cam shaft issues of wearing down. Weird noises is usually a first sign of too much wear on the cam bears.

Another possible source of the noise is the turbo flex hose. We had a 2004 TDI passat's hose develop a small hole from simple wear and tear friction over the years. This hole caused the car to drive with less power, but not enough to throw off codes and kick the car into limp (i.e. undriveable) mode.

Is there more smoke than usual coming from the exhaust?
 
PD engine... IF everything else is ok (camshaft...engine overall) it just needs to set lash on injectors (like valve lash)... And it will quiet itself down...

It is wise to do that every now and then. And its easy to know when because engine gets noisier.... Or if you connect it via OBDII on lets say VCDS...that way you can easily see that injectors are out of limits...every injector compensate improper lash settings with a correctional factor...wich can be observed via proper scanning tool (VCDS or...)
 
Whoa, this one was dug up from the grave. How do people find them and then randomly comment?

She gave me the car and I sold it a while back, camshaft was badly worn. Unknown if that's why it was so loud.
 
Old thread and all...

Always was amazed that my PD went to high miles on the original cam. Figured I must have had a faulty one--must have gotten an extra heat treating step or something, something that the later ones didn't get.

Woke up quite nicely with a VNT17 and RCII tune.
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