This is the best news I have heard. Thank you for sharing.
A lot of people have asked me about leaving at my mothers house. She is 95 and has about 10% vision
I don't think I have to hide the keys from her.

 

Hey Van, What I have to offer is probably of little value, but I'm going to predict that your water pump has failed, and probably even before you bought the car. Two things in your thread about this catch my attention. One is that you found the timing belt real loose and tightened it. The other is that you have reported the engine noise coming from the front of the engine.

My theory is based on one of my own experiences. A while ago I bought an S4 on eBay out in WVa. It was listed as having a knock in the engine, so of course it did not sell for very much. However, when the seller took it about 20 miles to deliver it to the shipper, probably by flat bed, they would not accept it because they could not get it to run. Then they took it somewhere more local and I think ended up with a jumper wire directly from the battery through the drain hole in the batt box and to the fuel pump. I think that allowed them to bypass the LH and to get it to run enough to have it loaded for shipment. I also think they messed around with it a lot in the process jump starting it and such to the point that the battery was dead by the time they got it at least to Denver.

I went there with a flat bed trailer that I had borrowed and loaded it with a come along and hauled it home, but that is a whole nuther story. After I got it here I found that they had trashed the LH, so I put in one of my spares. They had the wrong size and dead battery in it so I replaced that with one that was charged. Then I got it started. Then I could clearly hear that there was not a knock in the engine but rather a rattle on the front of the engine.

As I recall I think the car was said to have had a fairly recent timing belt job done on it. I think that was true because the timing belt looked very fresh with all the printing clearly visible on the back side of it. I decided to take the front stuff off the engine and to redo the timing belt. As I did so and got the belt about ready to come off, I found that it was very loose. Then when it was off I found that the water pump pulley was so loose in the shaft hole that it just flopped around.

I think what happened was that whoever had the car before had had the timing belt done, but that the water pump had not been replaced. Then I think it got noisy very shortly after so the owners then traded it off and the seller I got it from had probably bought it off the back lot of the BMW Dealer that took it in trade.

I replaced the water pump and actually put the timing belt back on and it started right up and runs nicely. No knock in the engine. Rich has rebuilt the LH for me. Now, my plans for this car are just now coming into reality. Oh, it also needs a rack since the one on it had leaked totally dry.

Now, Van, I don't know how this plays in with the oil consumption issue or the puffs of smoke every minute or so, and it may or may not be related, or it may not even be your water pump. Just my thoughts about it. Hope it works out for you.

 

Hi Jerry.
I think your theory is sound. Since I have all the records, yesterday I went back through them looking for clues. The timing belt was replaced along with a rebuilt tensioner 8,000 miles ago (2008) A rebuilt water pump was installed in 2002. Nothing regarding the water pump since then. However the warning light for the new belt came on often and the local shop in NB kept adjusting the belt just like I did.
You may be on to something
Van

 

In another thread contemporary with this one they are talking about the water pumps and the clear suggestion is that a rebuilt water pump is good for only about 7500 miles.

 

Jerry, I think you might be on the right rack with the water pump. Not with the 7500 miles, a rebuilt pump can be good anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 miles-- there is imply no way to tell. And back in 2002I think most of the rebuilt pumps were OK.

However, I have another theory about water pumps: They do NOT like to sit. The water seal, as I understand it, is a ceramic face seal. As it sits for years, it dries. It doesn't leak, because it doesn't move. But then some day a handsome young prince comes along (no, Jerry, not you or I) and starts the engine. The seal, dry and crusty, gets trashed and starts leaking coolant through the bearing. Maybe the weep hole is also dry and crusty, or maybe it is too small, but in any event the bearing gets hosed and a hundred miles later is toast.

BTDT, our GTS a couple hundred miles after we got it. Asleep for 16 years with low miles but good coolant, original pump, alarming noises a couple of months after awakening (but no belt warning), very wobbly pulley. We dove in before it got to awful noises and belt warnings, but that is where it was headed.

Van, if you're bored waiting there nothing to lose by doing a WP/TB job.

Cheers,

 

This car had been driven, about 1300 per year since 2003. It was driven, but not far in May and June due to the intermittent LH and a broken wire in the MAF.
I would love to dive into it myself, however the only tools at my mom's house are rakes and weeders and maybe an adjustable spanner, a hammer and other implements of destruction.
4 hours at a steady 80mph on Hwy 5 in 90 degree heat and a long nap could have awaken it.
The oil consumption is still a mystery.

 

I think it the problem started with a broken valve spring. How it would break is anyones guess. In my mind this would relate to the loss of oil if the valve stopped moving then oil could seep onto the top of the piston, explaining the reported puff of smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Would a non working valve make such a noise?

 

I've been told that if the hydraulic lifters are not properly pressurized, that spirited driving can result in both valve spring and valve damage.

Did you have any taping indicating some flat lifters?

Hydraulic lifters really don't like sitting for long periods.

 

I can't say that "spirited" driving is a steady drone at 80mph is "spirited"
I did just change the oil from 5/30 Mobile 1 to 20/50 Brad Penn.

 

A broken spring will make noise. Working on an S4 that had 4 broken ones. But the engine will shake at idle too. If this is a 32V engine than it has dual springs so if only one breaks, the other will keep the valve work but enough to not to leak. So the engine will be out of balance and shake and knock at idle. I'm not certain it would consume oil though. A failed water pump will not make the engine consume oil that is for sure. You might have more than one problem or a spun Rod bearing.

 

It's a 5.0. If it is a rod bearing, can this be repaired without pulling the motor? We did this in the pits at a race on an MGA. I'm sure the rack would have to come out ( good time for new motor mounts replacement)

 

Van, I doubt that it is a rod bearing. I don't think you were hearing that kind of deep in the belly kind of pounding that was your noise, and I hope, in that regard, that the noise is the water pump. Even if it is not the water pump and is in fact the rod bearing, that still does not explain the oil consumption. Since you are apparently not leaking oil, there is only one place for it to be going and that is out the exhaust. The main way for it to get there is through one of the cylinders. That likely means one of the following: a hole in a piston; broken ring(s) in a cylinder that has badly scored the cylinder wall, or perhaps a failed head gasket between one of the cylinders and an oil gallery.

Even those ideas do not explain why the puff of smoke from the rear was only every minute or so. In that case, I think, it might have something to do with the valve guides which might give the smoke only occasionally with some change in the throttle position once in a while. However, I wouldn't think that would cause the large amount of oil consumption you reported; and I have a hard time envisioning you making that much or frequency of throttle changes.

Just some more thoughts. I wish I could be there to help you look for the problem(s).

 

Way out on left field, based on the ball Jerry hit, bent valve stem and or broken valve guide.

Could explain the noise high in the cam area, as well as the sporadic and significant oil consumption.

 

Any update?
Steve

 

We will know shortly.

Mary called Van to get it into the shop.

Sudden engine failures on street cars are very rare.