Need help diagnosing a tick...

Hello tdi club,

I seem to have recently developed a pretty loud tick.

My car is a 2001 golf 2 door 5 speed with manual crank windows.
My only mods are a cup kit and bad ass r32 CA bushings.
I did an oil change (rotella) just a few thousand miles ago. and I only use shell or chevron gas. (West coast)

The other day I dropped a friend off to pick up their car after a water pump job on a 1.8t and on the way out I noticed my tdi was ticking.

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The tick sounds like it is once every rpm, it speeds up with the rpms.
I can hear it inside the cab and echoing off the ground when the hood is closed.
But with the hood up the engine is so loud I cant tell what sound is what.


I do have a mechanics stethoscope so I poked around for a while trying to pinpoint it.

It is the loudest in three places I found so far:

-loudest- the 3rd injector from the pass side (the one that is different and has a wire on it) not sure the #.
-2nd- on the valve cover near the injector. and slightly more toward the drivers side.
-3rd- on the exhaust manifold right off of the head where I can get to it near the drivers side.

the only way I can tell that is the actual tick and not just the engine being a diesel is that is has a very slight variation in how loud it is.
like tick tick tick tick tick tick tick repeat . (yah, I just did that)

I was being hopeful thinking maybe it was a dirty injector so I ran a diesel purge. It came out vey clean and nothing seemed to change.


So Im not sure what my next step is.
I think im going to check the IP timing manually if I can as I do not have access to VCDS.
Im really trying to avoid taking off the valve cover as I am working on the side of the road in California. they seem to look down on that round here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

one thing I cant find much info on is that injector. why is it different, does it have a name. can I rebuild it.

The #3 injector is different because it houses the G80 Needle Lift Sensor which signals the actual time of injection to the ECM J248. If this sensor goes bad the engine will go into a sort of 'limp mode' wherein the fuel quantity will be reduced and fixed specified values from a 'map' will manage injection timing. If this sensor is working there is nothing you can do to fix it.

Your problem sounds more like a hydraulic valve lifter not holding pressure. Some slight "ticking" may be normal for a short while while the engine is cold but from your post the engine would have been warm when you noticed the sound.

At some point you will have to go under the valve cover and check valve clearances to find out. Recent oil change and engine up to operating temperature are pre-requisites to an accurate check (.008").

Hopefully you can convince the neighbours that an engine minus its valve cover is not a wardrobe malfunction...

Thank you and thank you.
I love advice from this forum.

I am thinking a lifer too. that's honestly what it sounds like.

If im going to take off the valve cover. what all should I look for under there.?
Ive read a few post about bearings being worn.

Maybe ill take the intake manifold off and clean it at the same time.

I will try to find a write up on the removal and checking the clearances. possible replacement?

I have don't everything on these mk4s from ac to clutches. Ive just never actually looked at the innards.

Not sure you checked this, a loose injector or a bad washer will make a loud tic just like a lifter.

There will often be signs of leaking around the offending injector. Try snugging up the hold down bolts of all your injectors.

It doesn't look like there are any leaks around the injectors.
I will spray done soapy water around them and check for bubbles (not sure if that would work).

I did notice the other day when I started it to let it warm up to do the diesel purge that there was some smoke coming from the exhaust for the first minute or so.

I was thinking it was just because I hadn't started it in a few days.
It was definitely fuel. Bent down to smell it, wind blew and I got a mouth/lung full.

I haven't been able to look at it as much as I want. Dealing with dmv the last few days.

she_loves_the_D said:

It doesn't look like there are any leaks around the injectors.
I will spray done soapy water around them and check for bubbles (not sure if that would work).

I did notice the other day when I started it to let it warm up to do the diesel purge that there was some smoke coming from the exhaust for the first minute or so.

I was thinking it was just because I hadn't started it in a few days.
It was definitely fuel. Bent down to smell it, wind blew and I got a mouth/lung full.

I haven't been able to look at it as much as I want. Dealing with dmv the last few days.

Click to expand...

Soapy water will definitely work if it's blowing compression past an injector seal.

Jettadoor said:

At some point you will have to go under the valve cover and check valve clearances to find out. Recent oil change and engine up to operating temperature are pre-requisites to an accurate check (.008").

Hopefully you can convince the neighbours that an engine minus its valve cover is not a wardrobe malfunction...

Click to expand...

So ive been looking for a write up on checking the valve clearances and just haven't came up with anything.

Ive never actually done such a job before. I found a couple threads for replacing a cam in a td.

Ill keep looking but if anybody has a good one bookmarked or knows of one a link would be awesome.

Once you get the valve cover off, turn the engine by hand until the lobes of the valves for a particular cylinder are both pointing upwards. You don't have to start with #1, have a good look beforehand to see which ones are getting there and turn the engine until they are up top. Then follow the firing order (1342).

With a feeler gauge check the distance between the bottom of the cam lobe and the top of the lifter, it should be .008".

Do each cylinder and note if one or more of the clearances is more than spec. According to the manual anything more than .008" is bad but a more experienced member may be able to help you more from this point on, I've never had to do this myself, my experience with lifters was with the older 'solid' lifters that we adjusted with shims or adjusting valve clearance with a screw and lock nut!

Sounds like a possible injector to me, I believe my tdi has a bad injector as it has a hazy smoke on start up untill it is warm. Sometimes my car will blow large amounts of black smoke so I think one of my injectors is on its death bed. I would reccomend throwing some power service in and see if the tick is still there or quiter then before. When I use diesel clean the tick gets very quite or even goes away along with the smoke, if I don't use it the smoke and Tick will come back. I still seem to get decent mpg so it hasn't caused any issues in that department but I will have my mechanic look at it and see what he thinks. Might be something you can look into. Injectors can get ticky and noisy if starting to go bad.

Blackjedi said:

Sounds like a possible injector to me, I believe my tdi has a bad injector as it has a hazy smoke on start up untill it is warm. Sometimes my car will blow large amounts of black smoke so I think one of my injectors is on its death bed. I would reccomend throwing some power service in and see if the tick is still there or quiter then before.

Click to expand...

I was actually thinking that. just because in the winter I was having a hard time starting.
But my battery was also going out. It still takes some time to start on a cold day, but then again Arizona doesn't really get that cold.

I used diesel purge directly through the injector pump. and the noise did not change at all.

Im going to try to check the clearances. I still cant really picture what these guys are telling me to do.
Im sure It will make more sense once I get in there.