'97 854 Base Loud tapping from valve cover

chrisn81 · Post by **chrisn81** » 11 May 2015, 14:04

Did the timing belt on this car a little over 1K ago. Everything lined up, car runs great. Recently, when it's warm at idle there is an intermittent tapping from the valve cover area. By intermittent I mean it doesn't happen every time the car idles, just when it's hot and idles for a while, or if I turn it off and then back on soon after. It's pretty loud, rhythmic, and sounds metal-to-metal to me. I'm trying to figure out if it's related to the t-belt change or just another coincidental issue that happened to pop up soon after. Hoping someone has had a similar experience and can give me a lead to chase. Thanks!

Post by **misha** » 11 May 2015, 16:36

How is the oil level?
What oil viscosity and what brand of oil filter?
Did it have that noise before timing belt change?

chrisn81 · Post by **chrisn81** » 11 May 2015, 16:51

Oil is fresh and level is perfect; just changed it on Thursday to see if that helped. Valvoline 10w-30 synthetic hi-mi like I always use; Mann filter from IPD.
The noise was not present before I did the t-belt, but the car was driven very sparingly for the fall and winter months before the belt was done in March.

chrisn81 · Post by **chrisn81** » 11 May 2015, 16:53

Didn't develop the noise until the weather started to warm noticeably. Not sure if that's related either, or just another coincidence.

Post by **misha** » 11 May 2015, 16:58

I would switch to 10w-40 next oil change.10w-30 is little thin for these cars.
Besides that..you can re-check your timing marks and if it's all fine,take it to a hard and fast drive for a 20-30 minutes.Give it,like somebody like to say....an "itallian tune-up".

Post by **misha** » 11 May 2015, 17:01

chrisn81 wrote:Didn't develop the noise until the weather started to warm noticeably. Not sure if that's related either, or just another coincidence.

That's what i thought.The oil is too thin for warm weather.Like i said in previous post....switch to heavier viscosity oil like 10w-40.

chrisn81 · Post by **chrisn81** » 11 May 2015, 17:14

Ok, thanks; I'll give that a try.

Post by **erikv11** » 12 May 2015, 09:35

The problem is probably the o-ring seals on the pickup tube inside the oil pan. This is a common failure item. Unfortunately , the fix requires dropping the oil pan, not a pretty job. 10w-40 may help, I would definitely give that a try.

Post by **misha** » 12 May 2015, 10:33

If the problem is in pick up o-rings he should have oil light flickering at idle.Maybe a bit of both.

chrisn81 · Post by **chrisn81** » 12 May 2015, 14:23

I'm just going to swap the oil out for 10W-40 on Thursday when I have some free time again. It's worth a few extra dollars to me to do the experiment. Thanks!