Autonerdz forums

Good morning Albi,

There is a lot to unpack here.

For a high pressure fuel system to work properly it must have adequate supply pressure. Have you verified your low pressure fuel supply to the high pressure fuel pump? How much pressure is available to the HPFP? Is it 4.0-7.0 BAR?

According to the internet this system defaults to low pressure which means the regulator solenoid is responsible for increasing fuel pressure when energized.

I seem to remember that even if the high pressure fuel system were disabled most engines will start and run on just the low side fuel pressure alone. They wont run well, but they run. Does this engine start at all?

Is there fuel in the tank?
Is the fuel in the tank actually gasoline?

500ms/div screenshot

What is the distinctive engine code/letters?

Albi wrote on Aug 10^th, 2026 at 4:32pm:


This is an excellent start.

Albi wrote on Aug 10^th, 2026 at 4:32pm:


I only asked because I've seen it bite good techs in the past.

Albi wrote on Aug 10^th, 2026 at 4:32pm:


This is why these forums are here. We'll help you get things sorted.


Here are a few notes on the capture you posted. (2016_Tiguan_Guided_test1_-_Copy.psdata)

Your time on screen is too short.
The 20ms/Div means we only have 2/10ths of a second per page and that's not enough to see whole crank or cam revolutions. Bump your timebase up to 500ms/Div.

Your sample rate is higher than needed but its not hurting you. Changing over to a fixed Sample Rate of 1MS/s will give you enough resolution for these captures while keeping your saved file size manageable.

Its a best practice to label your traces if you're going to post them. In this case I think we can figure it out but when your captures get more complex labels help keep the chaos at bay.

Be careful when making timing decisions with VRS signals. in Reply #3 your CKP screenshot shows the negative signal. In Reply #4 your screen shot shows the positive side of the signal. Keep in mind, on Floating VRS sensors the two traces are a mirror image. This means the top of a tooth on the positive trace correlates to the bottom of the tooth on the negative trace. I attached the VRS_Polarity pic below to help show my point. Most people try to use the positive trace to keep things consistent.

I created a .psdata file you can use as a template to redo your CKP/CMP capture. I labeled the channels, set the time base and sample rate.

Bonus points.
If you use a trigger to start your capture you can guarantee you'll get your crank event all on one screen. I would do a single mode trigger on the rising edge of the crank sensor signal at 2 volts with 5% pre-trigger.

When you save your capture you can keep your file size down by removing any unnecessary pages in the saving process. See Page_trip pic below.

Lastly, you can add up to 5 attachments to your post by clicking the little plus symbol near the word 'Attachments" to the left of your screen. See Pic.

Albi wrote on Aug 11^th, 2026 at 5:55am:


There is a 30MB size limit on attachments for the forums. This is why I showed how to trim pages and manage your saved file size.

I am meeting with the web developer in 10 minutes to hammer out a solution so you can upload captures to our drop site again.

https://www.dropbox.com/t/qs5hZfs04DscxeEI

I just uploaded my capture to dropbox. Let me know if you can open the link. SHould i tear the engine down again, or this doesnt necessarily show that my timing is off?

can't open it.

Yes it works now. Good catch. I didnt know what was going on because it accepted my first capture and then it wouldnt accept the rest.

Do you have any ideas btw Trevor what is going on with my capture? It seems its completely off but there is no way my timing was that off because I followed the timing marks. Worst case scenario I could have been off by one tooth or two maximum but the capture shows im completely off. Is this a phaser problem, or do I have a different style camshaft with a different reluctor wheel? Again like I said there is no way I am off by this much. I got perfect compression and leakdown test shows perfect results on each cylinder

Could I possible have installed the chain wrong? meaning i installed it when the cylinder 1 piston was at tdc but on the exhaust stroke as opposed to the compression stroke? This is the only way i can make sense of how the camshaft signal is so far off from the known good

Albi wrote on Aug 12^th, 2026 at 1:19pm:


I wonder if this is a case of the tone ring shifting on the camshaft?

I don't think a phaser is going to move as far as it would seem this signal is off. 

Albi wrote on Aug 12^th, 2026 at 1:19pm:


When you say perfect compression what do you mean exactly? Its not  really high is it?

Is this an engine you can remove the valve cover and observe the lobes while rotating the engine?

TrevorSchlientz wrote on Aug 12^th, 2026 at 1:35pm:


Every cylinder is at around190psi, and when i do the leakdown test there is barely any air escaping from the cylinders.

and no unfortunately this is the design where the valve cover holds the camshafts down.

TrevorSchlientz wrote on Aug 12^th, 2026 at 1:55pm:


Thsts actually the exact video I followed when I installed the chain lol.

Yes you got everything right so far.

“Are there any codes that set on or after cranking?” - No codes are set after cranking. Actually after I clear the codes no codes come up.
“Is there an RPM value in the pid data when cranking?”- yes between 250-500 rpm and then it dies
“Is there a Cam/Crank sync pid? Does it ever indicate that a synchronization has been achieved?” Not sure. I think you can’t check with the vcds the position of the phaser during crank. I think the car has to be at idle
Yes there is spark

UPDATE:

I went and tore up the cam covers and verified that timing is set perfect. So the question is what the hell is going on how am I 80+ degrees advanced?
Is this a phaser problem? Has the elector wheel shifted on the intake camshaft? Here are the pics below that verify timing integrity of the camshaft.

Something weird popped up. I noticed that when the crank and cams are at TDC , the number 1 piston is not. I updated a picture you can see by the hone pattern on the borescope how far cylinder 1 is from tdc.

How is this possible? Cams are set to tdc, crank is set at tdc, piston 1 is not where it is supposed to be which is TDC!! Did my crank sprocket slip from the special flat spot? or does my crankshaft have a mechanical problem?

Albi wrote on Aug 13^th, 2026 at 3:14pm:


Right now thats what I'm bettin.

You've gone this far. It can't be that much more work to take that lower gear off and make for certain the crank is in the correct location.

Isnt closure so sweet. 

I just finished retiming it. Before putting the timing covers pack on I cranked it and captured the cam+crank waveform.

It looks like it is on time this time around but I need to do some more redearch on how to compare the known good and my capture in the same screen. In the meantime can you guys please help me verify if timing is good?

That looks like it is on time.

Albi wrote on Aug 14^th, 2026 at 8:57am:


This! This is what we need to convey to the world. This is is the reason why, right here.

Good job on sticking with it and seeing it through Albi.

This the type of experience that will pay dividends for years to come.

Oh and another thing. I should have paid attention to this detail. So even though the car was crank no start, it used to stall after a few cranks and i would have to hold the brake and turn ignition on again to get it to crank, and it wouyld stall again and the cycle would repeat.
Yesterday when i got timing right, there was a nice beautiful long smooth crank, it didn't stall. But because I lack experience doing timing chains (this is my first timing chain ever) I didn't pick up on the clue that the crank then stall problem was a deeper issue. My waveforms should it as well, there were short cranking sessions followed by no signal and then a crank signal again.

Lucky you .
I am surprised no valves were bent and the compression you had with the timing off.