[matttastic]

HI,
I live in San Diego and wanted to join in order to get some help with an issue I am having. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me troubleshoot some issues.

I am original owner and have 190,000 on my car. Always synthetic oil every 4-5 k miles. Just went to replace my clutch and flywheel when the throwout bearing went bad for the second time, and thought it would also be good to do my second round of timing belt service and water pump and valve cover gasket.

Did all the work and know I am getting this weird bearing noise along with a sort of burnt metal smell. The oil temp also seems to get higher than usual, around 230-240 on the gauge when I could have sworn it always hovered around 190. The sound only happens on a cold start and I thought it was my cam bearings because maybe I had sludge but the engine is super clean and there is oil getting to the entire top of the head.

Now based on some other videos and threads I am thinking it could be as simple as a faulty tensioner pulley although I can't imagine why it would cause higher oil temps.

 

[matttastic]

I have also seen some posts on failing SAIP which I replaced a couple of years ago because it just failed one day and wouldn't run at cold start. It seems that when the combi valve fails water will get into the SAIP and cause repeated failure of the SAIP if the combi valve isn't replaced at the same time. My combi valve is original so I can first disable the SAIP before the next cold start and see if the sound remains, and if so I'll know I need to replace both parts. The high oil temps I'm getting are what concern me most and makes me think it's not as simple as the SAIP or combi.

 

[matttastic]

Embarassed to say it but it ended up being the brand new Uro ac belt tensioner. Might have had it set too tight but I put the old Audi one on I had pulled off of it and it's back to normal.