One of my vct gears are horribly noisey I did the "ground the solenoid wire " trick to prove it was this making the noise. Several people told me it was a big end knock others lifters ect. My question is. What would constantly grounding this wire do, it eliminates the noise completely, my understanding is it allows the gear to fill with oil to prevent the metal on metal contact? But in constantly grounding the wire will it make the gear build up too much pressure and eventually break/burst? Causing an oil leak or worse damage? Only ask as new replacements are $800+ It'd be great to drive the car without everyone looking at you thinking it's about to blow up!
Wont damage the cam gears, will make it idle like a bucket and reduce torque down low though. Over time it may upset the ECU and lead to it trimming fuel out due to the increased blow-through.
My noise is from idle to 1600rpm Not the rattle noise most get when they Rev the car and on decel So I believe the springs won't do anything to help that. All the research I did told me there's normally nothing wrong with the springs and changing them to heavy duty ones actually hinder and cause bigger problems.
Constantly grounding the solenoid will mean that the VTC is constantly advanced. You'll have too much overlap in low RPM and above 5800 and the car will run like shit. I understand you don't want to spend the cash but you either need a good second hand set or a BDE set. I've got an order shipping from BDE in the next day or so -I can throw another set of gears in for you they are $850
Thanks Rob, I saw you recently told someone else that. I don't have 850 tho. I will be replacing them with bde gears just till I save up. I've wired up a simple toggle switch to earth out the solenoid. Doing so about 6 times in a minute then putting back to standard makes the noise go away completely for a good 5mins even when driving not just idle . It also doesn't "run bad" at any stage. I don't wanna cause an argument just a healthy discussion because this is actually an issue alot of our cars have.
Another strange thing is you can hear and even feel the tapping noise from the pcv hard pipe just before the oil cap on drivers side but the vct solenoid I'm grounding is the passenger side to shut it up.
No idea but no surprises it is becoming more common as the cars get older. If you fit upgraded valve springs it is almost a certainty.
Grounding From my experience when I grounded the left hand side it also engaged the right hand side, so i guess their looped.
