Thinking of buying another VW R32 but with a known fault

[s2bounce]

I have seen another VW R32 2008 model but it has the below fault code coming up "P0014 CAMSHAFT POSITION TIMING OVER ADVANCED PERFORMANCE
Not Illuminated BANK 1".

My question is could this be something expensive to possibly sort out and what could possibly be wrong with it, the owner says he does not know either.

[Emeye]

Google is your friend - I just cut and paste the error into Google and this was the first result.

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0014

[s2bounce]

Yeh I tried that but does not give me an accurate answer, dont want to buy it and then spend thousands repairing it, was wondering if any one else with a R32 had this fault code come up.

[ManOpener]

There are a number of reasons for this error AFAIK, ranging from fairly trivial to quite serious.

The most common I know of would be timing chain stretch, which is a known issue on 24v VR6 engines like the R32. That could cause timing over-advance. There are various other sensor-based problems (most notably the camshaft position sensors) that might lead to the same issue but without a specialist looking at it you wouldn't know.

Chain stretch is quite a serious issue and isn't cheap to fix. I know a few years back VW were offering contributions for some vehicles but no idea whether they still are.

I wouldn't drive an R32 with this error unless I knew conclusively the issue wasn't chain stretch or something mechanical in the VVT system.

Edited by ManOpener on Wednesday 15th April 12:32

[s2bounce]

Thanks that really helped, when i took the car for a test drive it sounded like it was misfiring when idle and the exhaust noise didnt sound right either.

[Dr G]

Run. Run far away.

I'll bet you the owner does know and has had an estimate for the repair too!

[ManOpener]

If it sounds like it's misfiring, it's probably chain stretch. A sensor error wouldn't affect drivability in that way; a misfire is a fairly good indicator of timing being out which suggests stretch.
Run far, far far away, especially if it's being driven with a stretched chain. Expect some piston-valve interplay at some point in the future.

[SuperchargedVR6]

Chain stretch was only an issue until 2007ish. By 2008 the revised chains were already in use. Sounds to me like a VVT adjuster is failing, which is about £450 plus a lot of labour to get at it. Either way, walk away.

[s2bounce]

Thanks for the replies