Hi all,
Last week I noticed that my car's engine started to emit a metallic ticking noise while it was running. The noise seemed tied to the engine RPM, in that it would get faster / slower depending on the engine's speed. The noise is intermittent, and I haven't heard it in a couple of days. Has anyone else heard anything at all similar to this in their cars? Does anyone have an opinion to what it might be? I'm taking the car into the dealership on Thursday, but I'd like to have some idea of what might be going on first.
Thanks in Advance!
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Update: 6/30/2007
I was perusing the net a couple of days ago and came across some great images of the N52 engine. Here are a couple that I downloaded that show the parts that cause the tick. I modified the first picture to clearly show the valve lifters.
1. Diagram showing the valve lifters
2. Engine cutaway view showing valve lifter position
3. Engine cutaway view showing valve lifter position