Last night I went to my friend’s house around 9, then drove about 40 miles up to Cleveland to get dinner (Barrio makes good tacos, and their blood orange margarita is fatastic). As we drive up, I notice the intermittent power loss that I hope is from the fuel pump is getting more frequent. As we get on the highway to come back, I notice a rhythmic knocking/tapping metal on metal noise under acceleration. We pulled off to a service plaza and I took a peak under. Obviously, it’s 1 AM and I’m tired, so I don’t actually see anything suspect.
I have been hearing the same noise when I make a sharp turn at low speeds since I got the car. My thoughts are CV axle or a axle bearing, so I probably wouldn’t have seen anything anyways.
I drove out to U Pull It a few towns over on Friday on a tip that there were some Cabrios over there that would have trim pieces I didn’t have, namely a mounting bracket for the center console and a hand brake handle. So 200 miles over two round trips serves as a shakedown for moving 200 miles away in a month... I guess? I’ll bring jack stands with me, because I know I’ll have to work on this thing during the school year.
Other possible causes: I’ve had an OBDII code for camshaft position sensor, which is code for hall effect sensor in the distributor, for a while and haven’t gotten around to it. Could also be a fuel filter, but my thinking is that since I lose like 10% power for a second or two before it comes back, it isn’t that. I don’t think it’s coil pack, because the car still runs.
Oh well. I’ll see what my Bentley says on troubleshooting the fuel delivery and the knocking.
VWs are reliable.