cmoore_

Ok, bought my car last month. I have put over 2000 hard miles on it since. Car is a 6 speed manual and has 86k. The past few mornings I have noticed a small ticking under throttle coming from the passenger side engine bay. It is consistant with enigine speed but is very quiet yet noticable up to about 3.5 rpm when the engine noise drowns it out. It does seem to go away as engine temps wram up, but is definately noticable in the morning. It is a small tapping (almost sounds like a small exhaust leak from an old hot rod with aftermarket headers for those of you who know what that sounds like) not loud like the ticking 545i's on youtube, but is this an early sign of serious problems? Car runs fine and does not have a decrease in gas mileage. Let me know what you guys think.

05545i

have you checked the oil? I drive mine hard, but i keep up on all the fluids/maitenance. If you can, post a video.

cmoore_

I have not changed the oil since I bought the car. I went staright to the dealer and had the history on the car given to me while I tried to build a relationship with one of the service advisors. The guy I spoke with swore by idrive regarding maintnance. He says this is what they go by pretty much. I beleive idrive says another 7-8k for an oil change. Ill probly just go change it soon and see if that cures it, cheap insurance anyway. Any other thoughts?

05545i

change the oil. I change mine every 7k miles. Mobil 1 synthetic 0-40.

Someone did a UOA on their I6 on this board and the analysis came back poorly at 9800 miles on full synthetic oil. Another reason to change it early. So, in other words, it seems that the 15000 mile interval for oil changes is pretty much bogus. Its cheap insurance.

rafichicago

My advice to You is to have someone to check compression ratio on every cylinder. It will give You the best information about condition of the engine and You will find out either to worry or not.

turboawd

you could take the acoustical cover off to determine if the noise you're hearing is just the injectors.

other cause could be bad lifters.

use a stethoscope to try and pinpoint the noise.

cmoore_

Update: I listened very closely this morning with the hood up upon cold start up. Ticking is coming directly under passenger side valve cover (sounds like valves/lifters operating with no oil). I know the injector ticking and this is definately not it as the driver side is very quiet with minimal noise coming from the injectors. I checked the oil once the engine was at operating temps and it was low, low to the point that it was right below the "low point" on the dipstick (no low oil warning on idrive). So I stopped by autozone on the way to the office a picked up a quart of castrol 5-30 and added it. When the engine is at operating temps the ticking is not audible. So this leads me to beleive that it was low on oil therfore taking much longer to reach the top of the motor causing the loud ticking at cold temps. Real test will be tomorrow morning when I crank it up after sitting all night. I will update tomorrow morning.

joebaggg

lifters for sure should be covered. Just got mine done

cmoore_

I am out of warranty, risky I know!

cmoore_

Ok, no change this morning. Oil level is normal. I guess I just have some loud lifters in the morning. I can handle this, just not any piston/rod knock!