Engine clatter when cold?

[SteelyTim]

Hi all

Was wondering if I could get a bit of input here. New owner of a 2006 NB 5 speed, with ~54K miles. Noticed in the mornings for about the first 10 minutes, there seems to be a very light upper end clatter above 3K RPM that goes away with about 10-15 minutes of driving. Is there a routine valve adjustment that cures this, or is it normal?

[Judee]

Originally Posted by SteelyTim

Hi all

Was wondering if I could get a bit of input here. New owner of a 2006 NB 5 speed, with ~54K miles. Noticed in the mornings for about the first 10 minutes, there seems to be a very light upper end clatter above 3K RPM that goes away with about 10-15 minutes of driving. Is there a routine valve adjustment that cures this, or is it normal?

Not sure on the noise... our 2.5L motors are generally pretty noisy to begin-with. Without hearing the sound I would hesitate to give you a specific guess... but you probably shouldn't be going over 3k RPM while the engine is still cold. That never does good things for your motor.

It may be that the oil has not fully-coated everything yet, so what you're hearing may just be the cam contacting the valve stem, the timing chain, the cam gears making contact, or any of many mechanical metal-to-metal contact points inside the engine.


.addicted2sp33d (Judee's Chauffeur)

[SteelyTim]

I should probably clarify, "cold".

There is a highway onramp about 1/4 mile from my house. That's where I would normally hit 3K or so as it is a tight and fast merge. Given an ambient temperature outside of about 80F, plus starting time and backing out of the driveway, etc....the engine isn't "cold", per se, but not what I would call up to normal operating temperature.

I wouldn't really say that 3K is excessive on a 5 speed, considering redline is 6K. But you've kind of answered my question, for which I appreciate . I've done valve adjustments on other vehicles, I just wasn't certain if the Beetle required them and at what interval, which might have caused a little upper valvetrain noise.

From what I've been reading, the NB requires synthetic oil, and as I've only had the car for under a month and about 3-400 miles, I'm not sure what's in there. Best that I start there and get a baseline for all the maintenance that it may require.

I've been working for Acura for the last 16 years, and this is my first VW since my Scirocco days of the early 90s. Kinda fun to switch things up

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Not just syn oil, but 5w40 or 0w40. The 5 or 0 for what should be obvious reasons - Cold engine oil flow. I read many posts from ppl who think 10w is just fine, esp in warmer climates. Even my GMs specify 5w. VW engines are very slow to warm, you should experience a blue light on the display that goes off when the engine comes to operating temp, on my '05, 2.0L, 10 min is not unusual, after sitting overnight, in even summer temps in the 90s+.

MORAV