Horrible noise

[neilw]

Turn on polo after our first bit of snow, and the engine is making a noise like a old tractor at tick over, rev up to about 2000rpm and it goes away. Kinda hoping its just some to do with the cold. still seems to perform as normal.

Any ideas? Cheeres

Neil

[Prash]

I get this nasty noise sometimes (usually at completely random times) and makes a sound like a proper diesal death rattle when starting up doesn't it ? IIRC its the center exaust baffle/silencer having a bit of a rattle, probably something to do with the exaust brackets that seem to have a problem of corroding on the gti's, i've had it a few times and I think its just one of those things (another quirky feature of the gti maybe ?) and wouldn't be worried about it, u probably won't hear it for a long time again.

[neilw]

Ah it was there again this morning, man from vw assistance thinks its the water pump so shes been towed to the dealers. Getting a hire car, want a mk5 golf gti, but will probably get a 1.2 9n like last time

[Si_GTi]

Hehe, "I demand a GTi for my courtesy car " - that'd be awesome. I bet you got teh 9n tho

My GTi does that same old "tractor rattle" for a split second on startup sometimes, like Prash says I reckon its to do with the exhaust rattling a little - been mentioned on here somewhere before IIRC.

Let us know what the diagnosis is

[neilw]

I shoud of at least demanded a VW! They've given me a nasty bottom of the range Punto.

I think ill go race my mate in his hire yaris, hes got while his golfs in for repair

[ttaw2]

That'll be a good race.. Everyone knows a hirecar is the fastest thing in the world on four wheels!

Or off them if i get my way!

[marc]

My car makes the exact same noise when i start her up. It does this every now and again but has no effect on her running. Like some one said must be one of those quirky gti things.

[neilw]

It wasn’t just when I started it up. It was still doing it after a 4mile drive to my girlfriend’s house. Then on the way back it seemed to get worse.

My dad said when he was with it at the dealers the head mechanic came over and was talking to the vw assistance guy, and said "its probably the cam belt tensioner there prone to braking on these"

I've herd people on here say about these braking before, and the noise is coming from the right area. They’re going too look at her today.

And having a fiat makes you appreciate VW build quality soooo much more I can only race HGV's off the lights now

Everyone knows a hirecar is the fastest thing in the world on four wheels!

..... Especially over speed bumps too

[ttaw2]

Hope it isn't too painful for ya - doesn't sound anything like when my cambet slipped, mine would misfire only once it'd got hot.

You still in warante?

[neilw]

Yeh its still under warrenty.

They've just phoned me, The cam belt tensioner has collapsed and made the timing 4 notches out, and my waterpump was leaking. There waiting for a new waterpump to arrive so they can turn it on and test it out.

[poussou]

This topic has been REPETEDLY analyzed and partly solved.

The sound is caused by the heat shield covering the catalytic converter.

The choices are

1)Remove it (unknown what effect it will have on heat transfer and the car itself)
2)Try to use noflamable insulation matterial to put between the shields contacts and the chassis. (done it but works partly...)

Don't change the shield...I did and it was costly and unsuccessfull.

Hope it helps..

[neilw]

This topic has been REPETEDLY analyzed and partly solved.

The sound is caused by the heat shield covering the catalytic converter.

The choices are

1)Remove it (unknown what effect it will have on heat transfer and the car itself)
2)Try to use noflamable insulation matterial to put between the shields contacts and the chassis. (done it but works partly...)

Don't change the shield...I did and it was costly and unsuccessfull.

Hope it helps..

Kool. useful info! the problem with mine was confirmed as the cam belt tensioner collapsing. Hopefully they've changed the cam belt aswell, any one know if this will save me any money on my 40000 mile service which is due in the summer.

[morrismen]

How many miles has your GTi done when the cambelt tensioner collapsed?

Seems this is another common problem with the Polo GTi - lots of people on this forum have reported this problem - wonders whether VW Customer Service should be made aware, after all, if this is a manufacturers fault as it appears to be, then as it can cause major damage to a 16V engine, and so VW should be replacing these free of charge with new ones that don't collapse.

If we make representations to VW Customer services about our concerns regarding this, then they might do something about it before all our VWs are subject to this dangerous cambelt tensioner collapse and subsequent engine problems.

What do you think?

[Si_GTi]

Sounds like a plan - you might want to start a new thread and get it stickied like the pedal box thread it would indeed be useful to know more about the problem and who's had it.

Mine went at about 53-55k iirc, but have the paperwork to go check on. There are at least four GTi owners on here who've suffered this failure so would be good to see if we could put a case together!

[neilw]

36000 miles. I'm missing my car now, slumming it on public transport makes it worse.