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Worn cam followers ??

5983 Views 11 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  mr rooney, 
mr rooney
Just been reading the very interesting piece on how to check for worn cams on a pd130 engine.

I had this problem on my car last August (now all fixed) but noticed the pics of the cam followers being "dished" due to wear.
My cam followers.... well the exhaust ones were "domed" causing a lot of drag on the cams which stripped the cam belt of a section of it's teeth and jumping 3 teeth causing the engine to die (while driving the nurburgring). The inlet cam followers wear ok?

Any ideas why this happened?
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C
Common issue in the states with a PD motor. There is 4 more lobes on the cam so there is more pressure with less surface area. Can't say I have heard about the timing belt stripping because of it. Normally something else happens like really rough running or valve damage. If your engine is good enough to run still you should look into your oil pump to make sure it isn't damaged from the hardend metal floating around the oil. The filter gets the bigger chunks from there.
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chittychittybangbang
It doesn't look like you had cam wear, then the broken timing belt, then a valve punching that mark in the lifter. It really does look like some nasty abrasion but a camera flash can also make small imperfections look deep.

Can you take another pic from the side? It can be hard to see depth looking straight down at it.
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mr rooney
Sorry but don't have the cam followers any more (went in bin) but i can tell you the centre is raised up like a mini volcano by about 2-3 mm. My mechanic thinks it's due to the followers wearing thin then the pressure from the valve or even oil pressure pushing it up into the shape in the picture.

He believes the raised bits on the followers (all the exhaust ones) caused enough drag on the cam to strip some cam teeth off and jump 3 teeth. This was on a 3k mile cam belt and genuine VW.

I had no signs of any problems before it conked out. I was thrashing the pants off it around the nurburgring when it broke mind you. Luckily no valves were damaged in this incident.

I have since been back to the nurburgring and completed another 12 laps without incident.
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mr rooney
BTW the new cam followers that were fitted were black in colour (color) as VW have changed them to harder ones to prevent the wear i suffered.
In my cars early days when i took it to a garage for an oil change im sure they didn't use the VW 500.501 pd oil which could have caused my problem possibly.

The last 70k miles i've used the correct oil but the damage could have been done i guess:mad:
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C
And sometimes the cam just wears. Nothing major damaged (valves). Some wear soon with correct oil. Glade you are on the road again.
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mr rooney
Yes on the road again thanks!

Fitted a new MAF sensor with a dab of dielectric grease for good measure the other day and WOW what an improvement! Car feel super fit now. I guess a worn MAF just creeps up on you like worn tyres do.

The Maf was as old as the car (almost 8 years old).

I run a K&N filter lightly oiled of course, as i know some people on here don't recommend them i am considering going back to the paper filter so what do you think?

Do you recommend applying dielectric grease to all electrical connections?
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chittychittybangbang
Good to hear it's fixed!

I don't use grease because most VW connectors have water seals on them. I don't remember if the MAF plug does but it should. Dielectric grease is normally used on spark plugs and is non conductive. I don't want anything interfering with the MAF signal.

Also, I would go back to the paper filter. I don't know about your Seat, but the VW Jetta and Golf all use the same exact air filter for the lowest power TDI all the way up to the high power gas engines. It has more than enough capacity even after light power mods and you don't have to worry about MAF oil and dirt contamination.
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mr rooney
I shall go back to the paper filter on your advise.

Makes sense what you say about the dielectric grease but people seem to rave about it on lots of car forums so i'll try it and see how things work out.

Thanks for your advice!
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mr rooney


Just like to share a pic of me having fun in my SEAT Ibiza as i know you don't do these in the US.
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C
The big rave with the di-electric grease is that it prevents corosion. It doesn't take much corosion to cause something to not make contact even if it is a water tight plug. Moisture can still creep in slowly over the years other ways but it won't get past the grease part. As stated it isn't conductive. You don't want conductive grease or you would be in big trouble with connections jumping signals all over the place. Not saying your MAF needed the grease but it doesn't hurt either.

The K&N likely is what killed your MAF to begin with. The MAF works by having a small heating element. The oils from the filter go past the heater and cake on. The heater then gets hotter from not having as much air go buy it as the coking acts as an insulator. Then it just burns out. Some MAF's can be saved with contact cleaner and it is worth a try for the cost of them. The stock paper filter as stated has plenty of capacity for your engine and won't oil up your MAF and they are pretty cheap. Your K&N got much more expensive with you through a MAF in there.
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mr rooney
Right im off to take the dog for a walk then i'll pop over to my VW dealer and buy a nice new paper filter.

Like you said dont think these performance filters make any difference any way. I've had the K&N for over 75 k miles so had my moneys worth.
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