Well after months of chasing problems around the engine (born from the engine trying to shake itself to bits) the problem has finally been solved, can you guess what it is..

 

 

 

It appears to be injector related?!

cam buckets are fudged...

 

Here is what new ones look like

 

What are the cam lobes like? Looks like the dreaded chocolate cam/follower problem that is quite common on the pd150.

What are the cam lobes like? Looks like the chocolate cam/follower problem that is quite common on the pd150.

 

 

Its exactly that, however for some reason the cam is in pristine condition.

Not good, out of interest what year is the vRS, how many miles has it done and what is the oil change service history like?

Its a 07 plate, its just ticked over 100k. Its got a full service history

I suffered the same on a 2003 Golf pd150, 90k on the clock, FSH, but on variable servicing not fixed. It scored the cam and had hairline cracks on the some of the followers.

It looked on the first post like the left one had a hole in, but the one beside it looked fine.

Other pictures shows some wear.

Easy enough job to change I guess

Yeh its in at unit18 as we speak, went in for cambelt and water pump + inspection into the idle problem.

 

Now its found they are going to crack on with it.

What exactly were the symptoms of this then mate? My car can be a bit shakey on idle but it doesn't have an erratic tick over or anything. To be honest, it has done it since I pretty much bought it two years ago and hasn't got any worse.

Also, do we know if there is an acceptable level of wear to the followers? They don't look that bad to me. No real damage just some signs of not overly excessive wear? The cam is supposed to touch them slight of centre isn't it so they spin and don't wear through? Have you been told what could/has caused this?

Mine is similar... bit of a shake on idle, nothing erratic but am wondering if this is the reason.  

 

In fact, the shake on idle seems to be common with the PD130 with age/mileage with lots of people unsure why.

The symptoms were the engine shaking REALLY badly since the day we bought it. over the last 18 months we have had to replaced numerous bit in the engine as we thought that was the cause of the shaking... these included

 

New flywheel (needed clutch anyway)

Engine mounts

Injector loom

Injectors stripped and tested

Cambelt and water pump (needed doing anyway)

 

All of these except the belt had signs of damage due to engine shake but we though each time that replacing the part would sort it.

 

Few weeks ago the shaking started to get so severe that sitting at idle in traffic will almost shake you in your seat and if you are holding a cup of coffee you can see it shake in your hand.

 

We took it to Unit18 and i have to say yet again Ali has been amazing, we left the car with him to inspect and work on between jobs, after stripping to engine to bits hes found that the buckets look like they have been getting very hot and are showing signs of damage.

 

Getting fixed as we speak

See if it fixes it or not then

Strange to hear the cam has not worn 1 bit but the buckets have been damaged.

Was the shaking intermittent or there all the time? I have similar symptoms but it comes and goes. Was your tick over ever erratic in line with the shaking? Mine isn't which feels a bit odd.

What will stop this happening again after the repair, did they find an issue with your car that has caused this?

Sorry for the million and one questions but nothing better than learning from someone's experience! :-)

Also I was googling earlier and came across the following thread which discusses this issue in some detail

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/camshaft-lobe-wear-inspection-and-replacement-on-tdi-pd-engine/

A new camshaft and uprated tappets will stop it happening again. Just fitted some last week, they are known as black top tappets.

First result in eBay.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=281407317811&globalID=EBAY-GB

Yes I've read that on that link I posted above. It looks like the black followers are VAG's answer to this issue? They are a harder material aren't they?

Did you also have this shaking hutchy?

See if it fixes it or not then

Strange to hear the cam has not worn 1 bit but the buckets have been damaged.

 

I cant believe the cam has no damage either but ive seen it and it looks spot on, im wondering id someone replaced the cam at some point to try and resolve the issue.

 

Hopefully it will fix it 100%

 

Was the shaking intermittent or there all the time? I have similar symptoms but it comes and goes. Was your tick over ever erratic in line with the shaking? Mine isn't which feels a bit odd.

What will stop this happening again after the repair, did they find an issue with your car that has caused this?

Sorry for the million and one questions but nothing better than learning from someone's experience! :-)

 

The shaking was there all the time, tick over was fine but engine literally shook itself to bits lol.

 

90% sure the uprated 'black' followers will be fitted.

 

That list i posted a bit further up is everything that has been damaged by the engine shaking to badly but each time it was suspected to be that item causing it,

Not so much the shaking, more the tapping noise.

The engine work was done as a precaution for chasing big power rather than to cure a problem.

What is really strange is the engine on our didnt tap and sound sweet as a nut other than is shaking

The tapping/clicking is one of the tell tale signs, might be with the camshaft being replaced as you suspect.

Hopefully they are checking your oil pressure once its back together?