440 clicking sound engine bay????

[ovlov man]

Gotta 1989 G reg 440 with 1.7 manual petrol engine. The old lady starts fine and runs well. When starting a journey there is often a clicking sound coming from the engine bay. It is a rapidly repeated and irregular clicking sound, rather metallic. It isn't always there at the start of a journey and lasts only a minute or so. It happens when the car is moving, still or in neutral.

Methinks that it sound like a relay but seems to be coming from the middle of the engine bay rather than the right hand side where the relays and fuses are. The indicators and wipers work o.k.

Any ideas will be appreciated. I have tried running the engine and leaping out of the car and opening the bonnet to locate the source of the clicking but fid it difficult to identify where it is coming from. Could it be a Death Watch Beetle sending a Morse code message to the scrapyard????

[Peter Milnes]

1. Arm yourself with, say, a long screwdriver or about 2foot of small dowelling. Place handle or one end of dowelling against one of your ears (note, do not stick anything IN your ears). Probe around the engine head and crankcase with the other end and note where the ticking sounds loudest. That will give you an idea of where the sound is coming from. I believe that your engine is a multipoint fuel injection model with a seperate cold start injector and an Idle Air Control valve. Any of the injectors could be the cause of the ticking or even a cam follower occasionally getting starved of oil. It is also possible that the fan blades might be making intermittent contact with the shroud. Do let us know what you find out.

All the best, Peter

[JimAitken]

I had exactly the same problem on my 480 up to last weekend. I followed Peter's instructions to try and locate it. I even switched on the ignition and waited before starting just to make sure it wasn't the ABS compressor, which it wasn't. I came to the conslusion that it was oil related when the engine was cold. Here's how I fixed it....

I drained oil and refilled with a really cheap no-name oil. I didn't change the filter. Added some oil flush (Wynns oil flush) and ran the engine for 15 minutes.

Drained oil, replaced filter and refilled with a good oil.

I still can't believe the noise has gone but it has.... no more morse code from the engine.

Try it.... your engine will thank you.
Jim

[graham_m]

i had the same problem a few weeks ago so i took it into a garage and he told me it was a sticky valve and he would do it for £165.00 + VAT. not having the cash on me i said i would come back (yeah right) ! i then done what JimAitken said in the last post flushed the oil then put in some magnetech oil and filter and guess what ? no more tapping :) and saved myself around;165