anyone have any tapping from their 2.0l motors mk4 2.0l?'s

[Tommy K]

Okay my car is a 99.5 golf 2.0l 5 spd motor and it has 114k miles when I went out and started the car it had a tapping noise comming from the motor. When I had my 93 golf gl 2.0l it did that same thing it sounded so bad its like someone threw marbles in my motors or something. When i upgraded the cam to a tt sport cam and changed the lifters the problem was solved ( I upgraded the cam for prefrence not due to the problem and also changed the lifters due to the cam). I was curious to know if anyother 2.0l owners have experienced this? My mechanic when I was complaining with my 93 said it was cause VW makes crapy lifters so they are prone for that when the miles get high. I would think that they would have designed the heads and hydrolic lifters to be better with the newer 2.0l but from the sounds of it maybe not........you folks have any thoughts on this??

Tommy K

[Monster8V]

Thoughts....
Well, its just a fact of life that migh mileage hyd lifters are prone to make noise. The upside is they are @$80 a set (8v) to replace, as I recall. Thats why I prefer solid lifter heads in my cars. (Where I can get em.)

[SLOW8vMK4]

My 2.0 has 92k on it and Im experiencing the same thing. Only $80 sounds good to get a new set, but is it difficult to replace them yourself?

[Tom (aka Godzilla)]

Shouldn't be too hard....

Pull the valve cover, pull the camshaft, replace the lifters, replace camshafts, replace valve cover. Don't forget to buy a new valve cover gasket!

[stevehayes01]

Is this a common problem on older VW's?? THe SAAB has similiar issues with ticking valve train but for us it is completly normal and accepted occurance. THe only dealer recomendation is to switch to a high grade synthetic oil and add Marvel Mystery Oil and it seems to quiet them down quite a bit.

[sikaltima]

yea mine does it...

[909dub]

With that kind of mileage it may have worn out lifters. But it is always worth a try to switch to synthetic oil. Most cases this will solve sticky lifters. There are also a lot of oil treatments that may work, I have had good luck with Swepco 502 oil enhancer.

And of course, make sure your oil level is full. These 2.0s are notorious for eating oil (all years).