The car was giving an engine warning light and fault codes via VCDS which kept coming back. As the clutch needed doing we decided that doing all the jobs at the same time would make sense so out the engine came!
Everything was straightforward, luckily no snapped bolts unlike our Jag X type project and after a full day of work in the garage the engine was removed from the car.
Next stage was to replace the timing chain, guides and tensioners which was all easy to access with the engine out. However coming to time the car up once all the new parts were in place was proving rather problematic. After 2 rotations the exhaust camshaft was out of line every time.
We then noticed that the exhaust cam adjust sprocket had quite a lot of play in it so every time the inlet cam moved the chain, the exhaust didnt move immediately until the slack was taken up.
We took the exhaust cam adjuster apart by removing the Torx T30 bolts that were holding it together to look inside. There's a pin that is meant to lock into a hole to stop the adjuster moving and this can be moved by the oil pressure.
Over time the hole that the pin drops into can widen so that it no longer locks the adjuster into place and it appears that this is what has happened to our one. It's apparently a common issue but there seemed to be very little information about it online, possibly because very few people go to this level of taking cars apart at home and documenting it.
Next stage is ordering a new one from Audi. There are many different versions of the adjusters available for different cars but unfortunately no aftermarket ones for this version so £540 lighter we got one from Audi themselves.
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| Inside the timing chain adjuster sprocket on the Audi A3 V6 |
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