Can a blocked oil pickup cause chain rattle? Or affect the VVT?

[Beavis]

Car is a MK6 GTI 2010 Totally Stock

I have some chain noise around 2.5k rpm and 4.5k rpm and off throttle when the car has warmed up to operating temperature.

I had taken it to a couple of garages and they suspected either the Timing Chain Streatched or Intake Camshaft VVT.

So I decided to do it all myself and I'm looking for more options as the noise is still present after changing

Intake Camshaft
Timing Chain
Tensioner
Cam Bridge
Cam Sensor
Cam Adjustment Actuator
Cam Adjustment Valve

Car runs perfect until its warm and the VVT coming into play. I have had it on a scanner and it seems the VVT can't change properly to advance/retard the timing and the engine rattles.

As the VVT is all controlled by oil pressure, the only think I can think of is if the oil pickup is blocked and the oil gets warm its struggling to pickup enough to pressurise the VVT.

Does this sound plausible?

Other than that any other ideas?

[simon k]

you ought to be able to get a readout of the oil pressure from the scanner too

[h100vw]

The only pressure outputs are binary unfortunately, to switch off the light on start. Or turn the light on if pressure drops when running.

What grade oil are you using, probably help using something a bit thicker. 5/40 over 5/30 for example.

Gavin

[Lucas_R]

The metal gauze on the pickups have been somewhat known to get clogged up with muck and cause oil pressure/starvation issues. Given you have done all of the work listed above yourself, i would recommend dropping the oil pan off and inspecting the pickup.

[Umai Naa!!]

Yep, very easy to drop old sealant, etc into the sump when doing the chains on these.

Also likely to find bits of broken chain guide in there as well.

[BLURR]

Common Prado issue = Boom! .Would drop pan and inspect.