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Rocker arm issue on exhaust cam.

imjustdave

New member
Location
Seattle WA
So ... I pulled the valve cover off and noticed that on #4 exhaust the roller is not under the cam lobe.... WTF !!!!

Could manually rotating the motor do this? I did do it a few min prior and I have heard nothing out of the norm while driving the car lately.

So I suspect this has been working for awhile as the wear marks on the exhaust lobe isn't like the others...

What would cause this?
How big a pain is this going to be to fix? I assume I wont be able to nudge it back in....
I have heard a few mention of a TSB but having trouble finding any info.

Only person in the motor this far was the ..... Dealer to replace the intake cam for the HPFP recall, would the exhaust cam be removed or loosened while doing this work???
 

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eurocars

5/17/15 - Never forget
Location
Indianapolis
Car(s)
2006 GTI
Exhaust cam was likely loosened because the cam girdle is removed to get either cam out. I'm not sure about walking it back in, never tried that. Rotating the engine by hand will not cause this.

How long ago did the dealer work on it? Did you ever get a misfire code for that cylinder?
 

imjustdave

New member
Location
Seattle WA
Exhaust cam was likely loosened because the cam girdle is removed to get either cam out. I'm not sure about walking it back in, never tried that. Rotating the engine by hand will not cause this.

How long ago did the dealer work on it? Did you ever get a misfire code for that cylinder?

It has been months sense they were there... maybe 10 15K miles ago... I need to look it up and find out for sure.

I have seen a few photos of damaged rockers and mine shows no signs of damage, I can move it a little with my fingers and it honestly looks like it just fell out of position and has been riding along for the ride.

This was on the exhaust side by the way.... so not sure if it would cause misfires.

I started having a few misfires,,, though I don't recall the cylinder #, so I changed the plugs and coils, which didn't help any and over the past 4 months the car has been getting worse, sometimes it runs normall but on colder morning days it misses enough to cause flashing CEL... then once warm runs somewhat right... I was pulling the intake to clean the valves 95K miles never been down and pulled the cover to verify they were closed and noticed it...

I'm completely stock as of today, I'm going to assume I will need to pull the girdle to fix this... just not sure if maybe a clip broke and that is why it fell off or if the dealer just messed up again on this car.

Anyone feel that the carbon buildup on the exhaust valve might be an issue once it opens for the first time in a bunch of miles? :help:
 

imjustdave

New member
Location
Seattle WA
Rotate the engine so the lobe is pointing up and slide that sum bitch back in there.

I hope it is easy like that... having never taken this motor apart before and no book handy I'm optimistic. I saw it .... and went hummmm.... and then went to cleaning the valves.

What holds the other side on the valve?
 

nkresho

suck, squish, bang, blow
Location
Pittsburgh
Car(s)
2022 Q3
It's not really held by anything other than the tension of the valve spring. There's a divot the lifter sits in and another divot for the valve.

i'll upload a pic in a sec.

Pics below. I think you're going to see most damage (if any) on the bottom facing side of the rocker. There are two ridges that hold the valve stem tip between them. Last two pics show it best from the bottom facing side.

I just happened to have a disassembled head in my garage. :iono:



 
Last edited:
I hope it is easy like that... having never taken this motor apart before and no book handy I'm optimistic. I saw it .... and went hummmm.... and then went to cleaning the valves.

What holds the other side on the valve?

Nothing really holds it on, there's a slight indent...when the lobe faces up you should be able to compress the valve...forgot to mention to grab a buddy and a long pry tool, but I'd try that first before pulling it all apart.
 

imjustdave

New member
Location
Seattle WA
It's not really held by anything other than the tension of the valve spring. There's a divot the lifter sits in and another divot for the valve.

i'll upload a pic in a sec.

Pics below. I think you're going to see most damage (if any) on the bottom facing side of the rocker. There are two ridges that hold the valve stem tip between them. Last two pics show it best from the bottom facing side.

I just happened to have a disassembled head in my garage. :iono:




Awesome thank you for the photos, as long as the rocker isn't damaged on the bottom side I see what you mean, not a whole lot keeping it on the valve. With some luck and a little wiggle I should be able to slide it back on with the valve pushed open and the piston down :) Hope to get it wrapped up this weekend.
 

Brrrrt

New member
Location
NH
Car(s)
2006 VW GTI
Awesome thank you for the photos, as long as the rocker isn't damaged on the bottom side I see what you mean, not a whole lot keeping it on the valve. With some luck and a little wiggle I should be able to slide it back on with the valve pushed open and the piston down :) Hope to get it wrapped up this weekend.
Reviving an old thread...any update on this issue? I replaced my son's intake camshaft this weekend due to a failed cam follower/fuel pump and did the timing belt as well. Followed the manual and all went well with getting that motor mount out, dropping in the new camshaft, sealing the cradle, installing timing belt, rotating it several times while maintaining TDC, etc, however I had a rocker arm pop off on the intake side after rotating the engine by hand once the cam chain was installed on both the intake and exhaust camshaft.

I'm trying to be hopeful that I can take off the cradle, pop out the camshafts and realign the rocker arm and reinstall, however the rocker arm seems quite twisted (perhaps more than just off) and this same rocker arm popped off on me when I test fitted the cradle earlier in the day, so perhaps I need a new rocker arm and/or hydraulic lifter.

My fear is that I did something wrong when doing the timing/camshaft job and potentially damaged the valve stems or that the valve spring/retainer is damaged.

I haven't disassembled everything yet, as I was quite upset yesterday, but will hopefully get some time tonight to take it all back apart.
 
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