turbos4audi

Video of the knocking...audio is so so. It was loud.

Video of the connecting rod with no bearing.

Some of the bearing.


The connecting rod cap scoring.


The crank scoring.


Cap and bearing from another cylinder. Look at the 3 different layer of metal on the cap. That's pretty cool. Compare this to the one above from the bad cylinder......big difference!


Bearing surface from one of the other cylinders. Metal has definitely gone through there. But there is minimal scoring.


Crank surface from one of the other cylinders.


OH look! There's some more of the bearing.


And some more!

|skolnick

How many miles?

turbos4audi

175k...stock motor, regular oil changes.

speedtek

I'm amazed you didn't get an oil pressure warning. Normally that kind of damage should set off the idiot light as soon as you give any revs at all.

turbos4audi

Yeah no light. Brand new oil pressure switch too.

speedtek

LOL, amazing it didn't......I had an Audi 80 in Germany that spun a rod bearing and started knocking.....oil light and buzzer came on damn quick. Pressure should have been out of spec on the spun bearing alone, nevermind the schrapnel everywhere else. Instills the utmost confidence in the system, don't it?

mchaloux

Do you know what you're going to do yet? Like did you get up one morning and start your car and it started to knock? Was it progressive, started out quieter then got louder? Maybe you've already posted this and I've missed it but I'm quite curious as to what happened. Did you drive it much with the knock? The other thing that bothers me is the oil indicator, you had to have low oil pressure with no bearing, or was the oil channel in the crank plugged with bearing material. Weird.

marvgomez

Chris when I read your original post I wanted to mention how mine sounded similar but when I lost a bearing it all went bad FAST. I think you said yours had been doing it for a long time so I never thought it would be a bearing.

My data point for mchaloux was the car had been running excellent. I woke up one morning got in and headed off to work. about 10 miles into a 20 mile commute, I started hearing a VERY faint knock and turned it around. I babied it home and by the time I pulled into the driveway the motor was BARELY able to keep running. I think if I ran it another mile or two, something that belonged inside the motor would have made it's way outside the motor... 8-) I never lit any lights either.

Brian W has a motor for sale on Audifans. I was thinking about it for a project but can't come up with the dough right now. I think you'll pay more for a decent bottom end than he's asking for the whole shootin match. ahem, them you'll have spares !

mchaloux

Marv, thanks for the info, disconcerting as it is. I take it you've rebounded since the fire. Hope all is well with you and yours.

turbos4audi

That will give me some piece of mind anyway. I found a crank on AF with only 30k on it. Should be a good replacement.

As for what happened, I was driving on the highway and changed into the left lane. Soon a jersey barrier divider came up and I could hear the knocking echoing off the barrier while I was driving next to it. I imidiatly exited to see what was up. Then had it towed home. I am not sure when it started knocking on my trip but I was only 25 minutes from home...meaning I had only been driving for 20 min. Nothing out of the ordinary happened before the knocking started either....it just started.

And as for the oil light, I never noticed it when this happened and I don't remember if I checked the gauge or not. I just wanted to get off the highway ASAP. But this weekend I talked with my friend that was giving me a hand and he said that while the car was running and I was using the stethascope, he was sitting in the drivers seat and he said he saw an oil can come on the screen. I think that is the oil light right? I have never seen in come on in my car. Guess that's a good thing.