Westchesterrick

I have a 2012 A6 with 20k miles. 3.0 gas engine. I opened the hood to add washer fluid and noticed a clatter from the engine while it was idling. Never heard the noise before - Audi does a great job in insulating the engine noise.

Car was warm when I first heard it. Tried it several other times just to see if it was constant and it is. I haven't gotten my hands dirty repairing an engine in the past 20 yrs, but the noise I am hearing sort of sounds like the valves making noise in old fashioned engines with lifters. You know, the tapping noise. Might also sound like the clatter that would come from a heat riser flapping as an engine warmed up.

Anyone ever hear something similar in their A6? Hope this is normal, but it does sound weird.

raaizin

I believe it might be normal, depending on how loud it is. The engine has direct injection fuel injection which is much louder than normal.

tenspeed

X2 - the fuel pressure is a much higher to overcome the engine compression and the injectors make a lot of noise. Sounds like a diesel engine.

jr'sAudiA6

I just want to reinforce what has already been said about this noise and that is I'm 99.99999% sure that what you are hearing is the fuel injector noise made by direct injection engines. They all make the same noise because of the high fuel pressure in which they operate. I just finished listening to my engine with the hood open and the noise I hear is definently the fuel injectors. I remember discussing this noise with various techs at various dealers and they all said it was fuel injector noise because of direct injection.

Westchesterrick

Good to hear that this is apparently not abnormal. I mentioned that it has been many years since I performed work on my cars. Last time I worked on a car, there were no such things as fuel injectors.

A few years ago, I was cleaning out my workshop with my sons and came across my old feeler gauges, dwell meter and timing light. I showed them to my sons and they had no idea what these antiques were for. My guess is that today's young "mechanics" might not have any idea what points or distributors were.

When I look under the hood of my car today, I can't identify anything other than the oil fill cap and the washer reservior.

Thanks folks.

jr'sAudiA6

LOL. When I was at GIAC getting my tune I was talking to one of their young employees about the past and asked him if he knew what points were or for that matter a distributor. He had no idea!!!

I too come from a time when you could pretty much maintain good engine performance through properly maintaining your points, distributor cap, spark plugs ect.... Now with the advent of computer controlled engines, fly-by wire accelerators, electro-mechanical steering about the only thing a DIY type can really do is change the oil and in some cases, if not to difficult, the spark plugs. So, I can understand how you could mistake the noise you were hearing as valve noise. Now you should probably take the time to bring yourself upto speed on the modern engine, lol.

irenesbob

On my 1963 VW bug I always carried a small metal file to file the points if they got crapped up. I had a flat gauge to re-gap them and get running again. Had to do it twice driving from NYC to College Station Texas where my brother was studying.

tenspeed

I had the Bosch set up on my Opel Mantas. A matchbook cover was around .036 and could be used to set the points. A piece of aluminum foil from a pack of Marlboros could be wrapped around a blown fuse to get you home.