2013 Engine Rattle and Knock

Just curious, you're buying cars to fix and resell, or?

 

Dealership repair maybe overlooked bent piston arm, or damaged damper plate (between engine and transaxle)? Those are two "complications" of 3rd gen head gasket failure.

 

Ah, missed about the engine replacement.

 

Yes at some point you'd like to try and confirm that or else maybe something is not fixed I don't know but seems like a lot of hands and a lot of things were changed people get to change in computers in these things really quickly funny thing is I haven't changed one once That's the last thing on my mind to be start taking out of the car is the computer systems until I have some kind of a code or a direct reading on an electrical testing device or something that is pointing to something in that direction If any of you ever get to look at a PDF copy of the service manual for this vehicle where they are eliminating computers are very long drawn out processes that most people will be very mentally worn out doing the tests they are long drawn out you need to pin and paper you're doing multiple tests eliminating and it goes on some of these things are 40 pages so how people get to three or four posts and then they're changing the computer or the ECU is beyond my understanding or it's just a well we'll try this and see so we'll burn up this other computer trying to swap because you didn't do any of the testing that goes through the processes of elimination of a lot of the nonsense. So then you're trying the nonsense and well you might be destroying parts that are good but you're just swapping in and out just to see that be like not fixing a shorten an electrical circuit in your house and you just keep replacing the light bulb or the blown fuse in the washing machine or whatever it is then somebody who knows comes along and says oh no you got to do this see there's a short down the line see right here where the wires melted so we'll fix that replace the fuse so on unfortunately it's a process.

 

Pine Hollow Diagnostics and his picoscope would have saved a head gasket job, a JDM engine swap and he would have done a “no parts required’ harness repair.

 

A tech of Pine Hollow’s quality before the incorrect hg diagnosis.

 

Thanks for posting this, that's a really neat tool.

The shop I worked in 30 years ago was trying to get something like this going just for in-house usage. I didn't stick around long enough to see how far they got, but the limiting factor seemed to be the cost of hardware o-scopes. We'd been lucky to salvage a couple from the auction of a failed dealership.

I suppose a stethoscope on the injector casings would have revealed this too. One not SNAPping like the other 3.

 

Yes the Picoscope is a powerful four channel digital storage scope harnessing the power of a laptop with a small analog capture module. Back in the day we would have paid upwards of $50k for the HP version without half of the features.

Pine Hollow also makes a digital pressure transducer for less money than alternatives. What is really amazing about the guy is he does mobile services, sometimes several along a trip to Florida or whatever, people bring their cars to him from many states away and he will eat the fee if his diagnosis or repair fails.

 

That's fantastic.

The thing we were working on mostly started because we had bid on some cheap blind lots at that auction, and one of them hit big- got us a couple of VAG scopes and a brand new Audi crate engine.

The scopes weren't exactly the right model to interface with the VWs that we fixed in our shop, but... they were scopes that we got for pennies on the dollar so we were curious to use them and excited about the potential.

People who ever did aircooled VWs will remember the old John Muir text, How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot.

The truly dedicated will recall that the 2nd edition version of this tome (and at least some later pressings) included an advertisement for an audiotape accompaniment, which included very good recordings of various VWs running well and less-well, all with guided commentary.

Somebody in the shop remembered this, and the project took on its own life. We wanted to figure out if we could put some kind of microphone or transducer and an ignition reference on an engine and then determine the valve timing on the scope.

We were all quick at actually setting the right lash, but nobody wanted to wait for appropriate cool-down. So we got interested in doing this thing so that we could not just listen for a tight exhaust valve by ear (not too hard) but also be able to prove it with a scope trace and a polaroid shot of it.

Like I said, not sure how far they got, because I was just a junior guy there for a few years to put myself through school.