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89 Jetta cold-start noise

Ive got an 89 Jetta wolfy with 115K miles on it. Occasionally when the weather dips here in Memphis (low 30s-high 20s) I'll go to start it in the morning and it makes this gawd-awful clacking very similar to a rod knocking, but after the car warms for a minute or two, the clacking stops.

I considered it could be a rod, but usually a rod gets louder when you put load on the engine and this sound goes away after the car runs for a moment. It sounds too loud and obnoxious for valve tap.

My second guess would be the oil pump. Ive only ever replaced one in an old ford ranger and the pump ran off the distributor I believe. Is it a similar configuration for the Jetta?

I am just trying to some educated thoughts here.

Chris

Reply to
Chris
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Our old Golf did that too... We figured the oil got cold and settled more at the bottom of the engine.

Never had a problem, we just never drove the car if it was doing it.

Tho we only had this problem when the temps were around -15°C or lower.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

It's your cam followers. Nothing to worry about, just a little irritating to listen to. What weight oil are you using?

Is your low oil pressure warning light or buzzer coming on? You could always upgrade to the larger oil pump gearing but I'd just live with it.

Reply to
Darryl

Throw an oil guage on it - it's at the age where you're gonna run into chronic low oil pressure anyway, and you're gonna wanna know what it's doing. If you don't have oil pressure for a few seconds then you'll know it.

Don't worry about the low pressure, just use 15w50 syn oil (or 20w50 dino). Or, get a high-volume oil pump.

Tim Wohlford '89 El Mexicano Golf, 246,000 miles

Reply to
Tim Wohlford

The oil pressure light only comes on right when the car starts, but immediately goes off. No buzzing. It hasn't lost any oil since I bought it a month ago and runs as good as my 2000 Saturn.

Since the responses are overwhelmingly 'cam follower' I'll take 'cam follower for 200 Alex'.

Its currently running a 10/40 Castrol standard oil. I'll put a synthetic in it this weekend and pick up an oil pressure guage. If it keeps up I'll put a bigger oil pump in it.

Thank you very much for your input guys. Mucho appreciated. I hope to restore this little gem this summer.

Chris

Reply to
Chris

Even the valve tap can be quite loud in A2s when cold. My '91 GTI runs great but when cold there's a 50% chance that it'll start with some loud tapping.

Last oil change I switched to 20W50 oil (even though it's winter, although our temps here are about 70F daytime and 45F nighttime) and that seemed to help a little, and as it uses oil I put in 5W30. Both seem to have helped lessen the noise. I used to run 10W30 in the winter and it seemed to tap more and also had some blue smoke on cold startup. Smoke's gone now with the 20W50 and 5W30 use.

Reply to
Matt B.

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