[IntriguedUser]

There's a strong ticking noise coming from my engine bay, here are the details...

Car:

Corsa C 1.4 SRi (2001) - pre-facelift
84,000 miles

Problem:

Strong ticking from engine bay once car has been driven for 10 or so minutes. It goes on and off, but for the most part it's on after I drive with a heavy right foot!

The noise is a strong ticking, it's very consistent and rhythmic, it's 1000% in sync with my revs, as I rev more the ticks follow in suit and increase is frequency.

I've done some research and the following are what seems to be the problem:

Low oil?
Tappets in engine, don't know what tappets are tbh...
Timing chain, I think it's chain driven and not belt drive, I THINK! (Z14XE engine is BELT driven, I have just found out)

Performance is still ok with this noise, it's just annoying. Apparently if I continue driving with the noise and IT IS the timing chain I could blow the engine?

What do you guys think? Apparently it costs £250 ~ to fix the timing chain, however those are posts from 2007/8/9...nothing as of recent.

Thanks for reading and helping if you do!

 

[taurus]

http://www.allcorsa.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/track-down-engine-52693.html

Try this procedure - being careful not to get hair/clothing in moving parts. It will let you listen to the internals of various parts of the engine with great accuracy.

Low oil? - Pretty simple to check the dipstick level.

Tappets - an old fashioned term for proper engines - yours has hydraulic valve 'tappet'. Between the camshaft lobes and the valve stem there is an arm and a hydraulic 'tappet'. The old tappets had to be manually adjusted to take up wear and they always had some clearance to allow for expansion. On modern engines they use hydraulic 'tappets' which fill with oil and expand to automatically take up the wear - there is no gap between the components so the engine runs more quietly and efficiently. An older engine would tap due to the small gap.

If yours is the 'tappets' it suggests that either a camshaft has significant wear or the hydraulic pressure in the 'tappets' isn't maintaining their position between the valve stem and the cam arm - in which case check when the oil was last changed and what quality/grade was used.

It may well be coming from somewhere else - like the water pump for example - so first thing is to track down the source of the noise.

 

[IntriguedUser]

My problems have only just started!

The car is now spluttering in 1st and 2nd, I can't seem to find a trend. After 3.5K revs it seems to have power, but before on certain occasions I can floor the pedal and nothing happens!

I'm going to change/check

Oil, and put 10w40 semi in...oil filter too
Air filter
EGR Valve clean


Some say it may be:

Lamba sensor
02 sensor
MAF sensor (If it was this, how would I know?)

No idea man!

 

[taurus]

Check basic service items first - plugs, filters, leads.

Good luck cleaning the EGR - they are pain to get at on those.

Before guessing at sensors get the codes read. If you've got a laptop invest in Opcom.

To check the MAF simply unplug it - if it runs better unplugged you know what the problem is. Only buy a genuine Bosch replacement

 

[IntriguedUser]

Check basic service items first - plugs, filters, leads.

Good luck cleaning the EGR - they are pain to get at on those.

Before guessing at sensors get the codes read. If you've got a laptop invest in Opcom.

To check the MAF simply unplug it - if it runs better unplugged you know what the problem is. Only buy a genuine Bosch replacement

Thanks, it's hard not to post a shit load of questions so I'll leave it at that and come back in a few days for an update thanks again. Now to find where the MAF is aha!!

Just unplugged the MAF: POWERRRRRRRRRRRR AHA

Took some elbow grease to get off though, so I need a new BOSCH MAF then, £80 doesn't sound nice