knocking noise

katem · Post by **katem** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:53 pm

Hi

I have recently purchased a lurvely polo 1.4s, metallic blue, 5 door, 40k with a full vw service history, all was fine, however over the past couple of days the car has developed a strange knocking noise coming from the engine bay. It seems to get quieter as the car is driven but doesnt go away completely. When started from cold it almost sounds like a diesel! (scary), yet she still drives perfect, i have checked all the fluid levels & there OK & was serviced before i took delivery.
Do you guys know of any known faults with these vw engines, or anything i could check, or is it a case going off to the local VW garage which im sure will cost me big Â£Â£Â£.

Cheers

ModifiedMadness · Post by **ModifiedMadness** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:38 pm

May be your Hydraulic lifters mate.

linsladeboy · Post by **linsladeboy** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:39 pm

Hi Katem,
What a coincidence! I too purchased an immaculate blue 5 door X reg 1.4S last Friday for my son which has exactly the same symptons as you have described(I had to check registration document as you rightly say it turns over like a diesel when cold).
It has full service history and I know for a fact it was lovingly looked after by previous owner. I was going to ask my brother to have a look at it when he gets back from holiday but now that I have read your post perhaps it's a Volkswagen trait. Can anybody please confirm?

linsladeboy · Post by **linsladeboy** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:30 pm

Hi Katem,
I have been informed by previous owner that it's the hydraulic tappets making that noise when cold and it's common to Volkswagen engines. Can anybody vouch for that!

katem · Post by **katem** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:27 am

sounds like tappets then, dont spose anyone knows what kind of job they are to replace? hope its not a remortgage the house job

linsladeboy · Post by **linsladeboy** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:25 pm

Hi Katem,
I don't think they need changing! the noise disappears as car warms up on my lad's polo. Like I said it seems to be common on engines with hydraulic tappets. Perhaps you are understandibly being over cautious. Let me know if you do get it checked just in case I am totally wrong.

liviococcia · Post by **liviococcia** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:41 am

Hello members
I've got the same symtoms on my VW Polo 1.4 E auto (x reg), as everything been checked including oil pressure by a mechanic, and parts have been change even though the old parts where not worn, i've come to the conclusion that the engine may be suffering from a bit of oil sludge in the oil galleries that feed to the hydralic tappets, so i'm going to either flush the engine with an oil cleaning product, or get the mechanic to do it, and then add a hydralic valve cleaner to the new oil, which stays in the engine until the next oil change, and see what difference it makes.

regards

liviococcia · Post by **liviococcia** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:11 am

well.... i had the engine flushed out, twice!, once with 'Forte', once with 'Wynns' using Quantum oil, and then it was drained, and 'Castrol Edge' VW spec used with Wynns Hydraulic valve cleaner.

And after a week of driving what have i noticed!, not a major difference, so whats the next thing to do?

Should i ignor it, and hope it goes away with time, and doing flush & oil change at every service interval.

Or, should i do what 'TheSecondComing' has described in a thread on 'Servicing tappets', and does his thread apply to my model of car (VWpolo 1.4E Auto year 2001), but before doing this, is there one last flushing fluid that anyone could recommend which helped solve the problem for them, Forte and Wynns have been used as i mentioned earlier

Any advice would be great

regards

liviococcia · Post by **liviococcia** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:03 am

Just to let everyone know, i'm gonna give the engine another flush and then change the filter and oil back to the Quantum Synth, and again add the 'Wynns' hydralic valve lifter treatment, the reason...

...well, on one of my days off i passed by my local VW dealership, i asked three mechanics to have a listen to the engine, they said it wasn't the lifters making the noise, they seemed to think it was something to do with the pistons, one mechanic was talking about something to do with a coating on the pistons at the time of manufacture being inadequate, and that during the warranty period this was dealt with, but i'm not sure i fully understood what he was saying exactly..anyway..i posted about this somewhere else in the forums, and another member came back and said 'that he thought the mechanic was talking crap', but i think they where all right about the lifters, because the more i listen to the noise, the more i hear it coming from deeper into the engine.

now, what i'm thinking is, that maybe it's more a sort of 'Pinking', but , i thought that my Polo model (1.4 'X reg' 2001) had a 'Knock sensor' to sort this type of problem out , am i correct?

If i have a 'knock sensor', does is it control both the engine timing and the ignition timing, or is it one or the other, and is it only ignition timing that causes 'Pinking' or engine timing, or both?

Sorry for all the questions, but i'm concerned as timing issues can finish an engine, so any info or advice would be very helpfull.

regards

dubpilot · Post by **dubpilot** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:10 pm

hello, im new here and just saw this thread, ive seen a similar thread on the clubpolo forum and tried to solicit some enlightenment from the users but im none the wiser at the moment. i drive a 1.4-8v match and i tell you, my car sounds more like a diesel compared to my neighbours rusty old van. its been like this for the last couple of months after its annual service but never bothered to go back to VW's to have it checked, runs fine still and pulls like a tractor, no loss in torque, or at least thats how i feel. more and more im beginning to think its a vw congenital disease for mk5's.