Intermittent VVT rattle only when warm

[Lordracula]

Hi gents I bought a 2002 volvo v40 a few weeks ago which on the drive home I found had a VVT rattle with a P0011 error, I cleared the code and then it came back again so I changed the (extremely dirty) oil and cleaned the VVT solenoid & cleared the code and the code didn't come back after that but the noise remains.

One thing that has been predictable the whole time is that the VVT rattles along with an Oil light on the dash, the sound is only there when the oil light is on. Also, this rattle generally won't occur until about 11-12 miles into a trip after a cold start in the morning, when I unplug the vvt solenoid the rattle disappears and a check engine light comes on.

This sounds a bit unusual in that most blokes seem to get the rattle from cold whereas I've only really had it when the engine is warm along with a check oil light. I have no liquid cross-contamination in the oil or coolant and the engine runs great normally so it's left me a bit confused. I'm going to dump the oil out again tomorrow and put on a new oil filter.

I've ordered a new VVT solenoid & gasket to get that out of the way first incase the old one is sticky or catching debris, but i suppose it'd be safe to assume that the VVT pulley needs to be changed at some point?