Tapping noise from top of engine

Henry_b said:

Gotta find a chap who knows what he's doing, makes a world of difference.

The workshop master tech i work with, can fix anything you put under his nose, regardless of whether he's looked at it before or not..

Amazing what experience can do for ya!

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ur right there, I certainly wasn’t going to practice on the engine , lol

I was the same with heating systems, boilers , in 25 x years was never beaten by a fault, may have taken a while to sometimes pin it down but always refused to be beaten

I can’t believe the amount of knowledge I’ve picked up since owning the disco , it only took me 3-4 months to find the airbag faults but very satisfying at the end of the day when I found them, was a multitude of them that all linked together so fixed one then another one appeared


Best of all save a bloody fortune

like ur goodself , u have more knowledge than some twice ur age, all because I imagine u had good teachers and pulling things apart to understand how they work ,

my pops taught me and he will still help me where it’s possible because of his age , he’s 90

gstuart said:

ur right there, I certainly wasn’t going to practice on the engine , lol

I was the same with heating systems, boilers , in 25 x years was never beaten by a fault, may have taken a while to sometimes pin it down but always refused to be beaten

I can’t believe the amount of knowledge I’ve picked up since owning the disco , it only took me 3-4 months to find the airbag faults but very satisfying at the end of the day when I found them, was a multitude of them that all linked together so fixed one then another one appeared


Best of all save a bloody fortune

like ur goodself , u have more knowledge than some twice ur age, all because I imagine u had good teachers and pulling things apart to understand how they work ,

my pops taught me and he will still help me where it’s possible because of his age , he’s 90

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Ha yep my Old Dad is an Engineer.

Also the Master tech at this garage has taught and is continuing to impart his 30+ years of knowledge so it does go a long way!


Also taking apart and breaking and then fixing is a big part lol

Milage is 95000 - so getting very close to the belt change interval now - it was serviced less than 100 miles ago - inc oil + Filter - fuel filter - coolant flush - new antifreeze - water pump - and new Thermostat - the belt(s) look very easy to do on this - in comparison to my N47 BMW where I had to pull the engine to change all 3 chains, guides, and pins as they are at the back of the engine behind the Clutch and DMF - we have had a stethoscope on the engine and it does seem like it is the back pot on the drivers side - the bottom and sounded fine when we stethoscope’d it - what is confusing me is the “only when hot” I will eventually get to tje bottom of it lol

hotmrw said:

Milage is 95000 - so getting very close to the belt change interval now - it was serviced less than 100 miles ago - inc oil + Filter - fuel filter - coolant flush - new antifreeze - water pump - and new Thermostat - the belt(s) look very easy to do on this - in comparison to my N47 BMW where I had to pull the engine to change all 3 chains, guides, and pins as they are at the back of the engine behind the Clutch and DMF - we have had a stethoscope on the engine and it does seem like it is the back pot on the drivers side - the bottom and sounded fine when we stethoscope’d it - what is confusing me is the “only when hot” I will eventually get to tje bottom of it lol

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cheers , what year is it please and have they ever been changed or will this be the first time

don’t forget u have the rear belt has well, lol

will be interesting to see what pressures u get, if ur also able to take some piccies of what oil pressure tester u finally use that would be great plse

Cracks/gaps get bigger when they heat up and expand....is when hot

Your coolant gone down at all?

It is a 2006 - I have no idea if they have been changed previously - so I will assume NO - coolant stays perfect - like a lot have said the Oil Pressure will be the next test - it will also be interesting - I know these are bad on the Oil Pumps - heard a lot of horror stories

No coolant loss is good. I’d have thought cyl6 would suffer more from oil pump than 5. You wil be okay either way, you’ll spanner it no probs.

hotmrw said:

It is a 2006 - I have no idea if they have been changed previously - so I will assume NO - coolant stays perfect - like a lot have said the Oil Pressure will be the next test - it will also be interesting - I know these are bad on the Oil Pumps - heard a lot of horror stories

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thks, hope it doesn’t sound like the inquisition with all the questions, lol

belts indeed are done every 105,000 miles or every 7 x years which ever comes first , so belts first time should of course been 2013 , really hope there not original being 6 x years overdue , but of course won’t know until u start taking it apart

Plse let us know how u get on,

ps, personally if there’s no record or evidence of them ever being changed I wouldn’t start the engine until there checked , would be such a shame to check the oil pressure and in the interim find a belt lets go

I got round to doing my Oil Pressure test - here are the results ( Normal Pressure Figures Are Quoted from My Haynes Manual )

My Oil Pressure readings as follows:
Cold & At Idle Speed = 2.7 BAR
At 3500 RPM - HOT = 2.5/3 BAR

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Normal Oil Pressure For my 2006 RR Sport TDV6 should be:
Cold & At Idle Speed = 0.7 BAR
At 3500 RPM - HOT = 1.9 BAR

So from what I can gather my Oil Pressure seems to be acceptable.....What are your thoughts?

You've ruled out an exhaust manifold leak? Can sound exactly the same as noisy tappets.

hmmm..
higher oil pressure due to a blockage maybe or an uprated replacement oil pump?
@gstuart can the replacement oil pump be seen to be different from the original?

just a thought,
get the engine warmed through and tapping, then listen around the area with a long screw driver to your ear.
if you have an idea its the followers, remove the rocker cover and take a close look at where the sound came from at the camshaft followers and cam lobes.
if you can turn the engine over so the camshaft lobes are pointing in the air and bounce test each follower in turn by placing a blunt object like a 1/4 extension bar but the end that enters a socket and gently tap the other end of the extension with a hammer JUST hard enough to get some movement out of the follower. they all should have very similar resistance to the bounce test. any that are to easy to bounce could be blocked and may explain oil deprivation and the tapping.
also examine the faces of the followers for excessive wear or even holes in the followers!!!
Ive seen an Audi 2.0tdi engine with rounded cam lobes and holed followers, due to bad oil maintenance.
if you can find something more suitable for bouncing the followers then do so by all means.

I do have a stethascope - it is however really tricky to hear - I have uploaded a video of the cold oil pressure test - initially I had a slight oil leak ( Guage wasn't tight ) hence the needle juddering - see what you think

going back to @Ratae 's comment about a leaking manifold, is there any discolouration around the area where the tapping is or even hot air escaping?
I couldn't hear you in the last bit of the video! something about crackers and what have I bought??? is that what you said?

I am a bit crackers - I own a Range Rover -- however no I never said that lol, it will be my Man Flu - I am certain that the noise is cam/rocker arm/tappet related - but I have been wrong before - you can hear it is like metal banging on metal - I have another video that I made - unfortunatly you cant see the Pressure guage as I had to do 2 things at once - but it is on cold(ish) engine at 3500 RPM you can hear the almost hammering noise see what you think

hotmrw said:

I am a bit crackers - I own a Range Rover -- however no I never said that lol, it will be my Man Flu - I am certain that the noise is cam/rocker arm/tappet related - but I have been wrong before - you can hear it is like metal banging on metal - I have another video that I made - unfortunatly you cant see the Pressure guage as I had to do 2 things at once - but it is on cold(ish) engine at 3500 RPM you can hear the almost hammering noise see what you think

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apart from the noisey bits; it sounds fooking ace. ive a client with a jag XK350 with the 2.7tdi engine and it sounds very nice...
aside the point, get your stethoscope out tomorrow and give it a thorough going over. small steps young padawan
saying young, im only a year older

I hate rattling/tapping engines - almost worse than sticky hands - I have swapped an injector from the back of bank 1 to the front of bank two - the noise is still there - so I dont think it is the injectors - I will grab my stethascope and have another look tomorrow - I might even pull the rocker cover off AGAIN lol - I never did any checks last time other than visual, and had a bit of a touch, nothing seemed out of place but I will top all the cam lobes this time and check for play underneath them -

hotmrw said:

I hate rattling/tapping engines - almost worse than sticky hands - I have swapped an injector from the back of bank 1 to the front of bank two - the noise is still there - so I dont think it is the injectors - I will grab my stethascope and have another look tomorrow - I might even pull the rocker cover off AGAIN lol - I never did any checks last time other than visual, and had a bit of a touch, nothing seemed out of place but I will top all the cam lobes this time and check for play underneath them -

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that's the score and its costing you bugger all apart from your time.

Mark Piercy said:

hmmm..
higher oil pressure due to a blockage maybe or an uprated replacement oil pump?
@gstuart can the replacement oil pump be seen to be different from the original?

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hi , indeed those figures look ok

few pics of the difference between old and modified , u can see the extra piece of casting which makes it stronger

there is also now another oil pump which has produces higher oil pressure , which is supposed to stop the crank from snapping , no evidence yet