A new-to-me (few weeks, few hundred miles) NB (2001, 43k miles) suddenly started making a rubbing/vibrating/fast clicking sound from the engine while I was driving slowly through a parking lot. I tried to drive the car a short distance to a better location but the engine idled so roughly that it died and won’t restart.
OBD reports:
P0011 "Camshaft Position - Timing Over-Advanced or System Performance"
So far, I have:
- visually checked cam by peeking through the oil cap
- pulled VVT solenoid to check for plastic bits (from a broken filter) that might be jamming it "on"
My next step, barring a better suggestion here, is to do a timing belt replacement and hope that I’ll uncover the issue along the way.
My (very speculative ) guess is that a timing belt pulley started wobbling enough to make the noise but not cause a noticeable (at slow speed) performance impact. Then, while gingerly driving the car to a safer spot, it perhaps skipped more teeth and fully quit.
Questions:
- Any other diagnostic steps I can take before pulling the valve cover?
- Are there ways to test the VVT actuator while it’s accessible?
- any better backstories for the cause/initial noise?
