acefuture

Well, that definitely is the exhaust valve lifters ticking. Whether you want to complain about it is up to you. If the car is somehow still under warranty or CPO warranty then by all means go to the dealer and complain. There is a service bulletin to replace the cam lifters and drag levers, etc.

However, if the car is out of warranty, then the repair costs are on you. I don't think it's cheap.

I've read that though the sound can be annoying , it does not cause any damage.

Had this work done on my '08 528i in November of 2011. No ticking since. It was covered under warranty.

Chopper 918

My engine used to have the ticking sound when cold until I recently went in and had all of the injectors replaced because I was experiencing a rough idle. I don't think they did anything to the valve lifters, but once the injectors were replaced, the ticking was gone! Any ideas?

jakucyjd

The car is under CPO warranty until June 2014 (and I'm obviously nowhere near 100k miles). Will they give me a hard time about the ticking like trying to say oh that's normal operating sound? Or is it so pronounced that it should be pretty easy for them to diagnose. I can reference the TSB, but the service advisors usually turn off at the mention of that because they think you've looked at the Internet and think you know more than they do.

acefuture

Any decent dealer will be able to diagnose and fix the ticking sound.
They should be happy to repair it under CPO warranty.

If they give you the "they all do that routine", go to another dealer. And when the other dealer fixes it, let BMW NA know of the first dealers indifference and disinterest.

Don't let this go, do it now. On some cars, the initial fix of replacing some of the exhuast lifter parts does not fix the problem. At least not permanently. For those, cars when they problem reoccurs, BMW will replace the entire head under warranty.

The sooner you get this fixed, the more time you have left under warranty to see if the simpler repair was enough, or if you have to go back for the head replacement.

Shlooky

The 545i's have the following engine...2003-2005 N62B44 - 4,4 L V8- 333 hp
I know the thread says N52, just wondering if N62 also has this issue. I don't recall hearing the ticking sound on mine, will check carefully today.