(Given the extent of damage, this failed a few thousand miles ago, I just happened to discover it at ~53k.)
I saw iGen3's post on the Vortex, and it led me to check mine. This is a long post, so for the "tl;dr" crowd, here's your Cliff's Notes: Shit's poop, get a Subaru instead.
Back in May of this year, I took the vacuum pump cover off to determine which camshaft I have. This is the "good" 'B' cam. You can see the line between the two pieces that make it up.
Since I found that I had the 'B' cam, and had no symptoms, I didn't worry about it.
---------------------
Now (December):
I decided that since I have 53,000 miles on the original cam follower, I should go ahead and replace it. I figured it would have the black coating worn a bit, and maybe a mark on the inside.... You know, nothing major since the engine has the 'B' cam, NO aftermarket fuel pump, NO chip, oil changes every 5000 miles with Castrol 5w40 VW 502.00 oil, not beaten-on.... NO fuel cuts, NO CEL.
I bought a new follower Friday, thinking that it was probably a waste of money since the original was probably just fine.... but it wouldn't hurt to replace it "just in case"....
When I pulled the pump out Saturday to change the follower, I was like "Oh, **** me!" I wasn't prepared for this:
"Wait..." you might say. "Where's the ****ing clip from the bottom of the follower?!?"
Well, if you look back up at the pics of the pump, you might just see it hanging on the pump spring.... I retrieved it with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and it's all stretched out.
I couldn't see any pieces of the old follower anywhere, so I had nothing else to do but put in the brand new follower that I just spent $60+ on, and reassemble everything. I cranked it afterwards, let it idle to warmup, rev'd it and didn't hear any odd noises or see any fuel leakage from the fittings, so it's at least as drivable as it has been.
Due to a settlement with Audi over my A/C compressor, my warranty goes to 62k. I dropped it off at the dealer this morning. Still waiting on the time estimate and complete damage assessment.
I saw iGen3's post on the Vortex, and it led me to check mine. This is a long post, so for the "tl;dr" crowd, here's your Cliff's Notes: Shit's poop, get a Subaru instead.
Back in May of this year, I took the vacuum pump cover off to determine which camshaft I have. This is the "good" 'B' cam. You can see the line between the two pieces that make it up.
Since I found that I had the 'B' cam, and had no symptoms, I didn't worry about it.
---------------------
Now (December):
I decided that since I have 53,000 miles on the original cam follower, I should go ahead and replace it. I figured it would have the black coating worn a bit, and maybe a mark on the inside.... You know, nothing major since the engine has the 'B' cam, NO aftermarket fuel pump, NO chip, oil changes every 5000 miles with Castrol 5w40 VW 502.00 oil, not beaten-on.... NO fuel cuts, NO CEL.
I bought a new follower Friday, thinking that it was probably a waste of money since the original was probably just fine.... but it wouldn't hurt to replace it "just in case"....
When I pulled the pump out Saturday to change the follower, I was like "Oh, **** me!" I wasn't prepared for this:
"Wait..." you might say. "Where's the ****ing clip from the bottom of the follower?!?"
Well, if you look back up at the pics of the pump, you might just see it hanging on the pump spring.... I retrieved it with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and it's all stretched out.
I couldn't see any pieces of the old follower anywhere, so I had nothing else to do but put in the brand new follower that I just spent $60+ on, and reassemble everything. I cranked it afterwards, let it idle to warmup, rev'd it and didn't hear any odd noises or see any fuel leakage from the fittings, so it's at least as drivable as it has been.
Due to a settlement with Audi over my A/C compressor, my warranty goes to 62k. I dropped it off at the dealer this morning. Still waiting on the time estimate and complete damage assessment.
