My 04 Discovery started making a tapping sound when the engine is idling. When I first start the vehicle there is NO tapping but after a few moments the tapping sound starts to come on and gets louder and louder. The tapping disappears when I press the accelerator. I checked the engine oil and it is a bit "overfill" but very little. The oil was just changed using the required synthetic oil. Anyone have any ideas what it might be. Also would an engine diagnostic tell me anything. A friend of mine thinks it might be the valve lifters gone bad. The vehicle has 73000 miles.

 

I have been ignoring a tapping noise for 12K miles. Was told a lifter was likely bad. The noise is intermittant and usually only in a warm engine.
Oil pressure is good. Synthetic oil.
Thinking of spending the $ to have the engine disaaaembled to diagnose and maybe fix. Est $800.
Thoughts?
2003 103k

 

I have been doing some research. I tried putting some engine detergent called "Valve Medic" by Gunk. A mechanic friend of mine adviced me to try it before taking apart the engine. You are suppose to leave it in you engine 3000 miles until the next oil change but I changed the oil after 200 miles after putting the detergent in my oil. The tapping sound went away after the 200 miles but eventually returned several weeks later. I may attempt to apply the detergent again. I like to try things very gradually. I also have a leaky head gasket so I am waiting to see what the problem is with the tapping before repairing the head gasket. To repair the head gasket is $3000 and the valve lifters another $1000.

 

You need to go dirty, open the hood and track down if this is an exhaust noise or an internal engine sound, then get back to us.

 

The longer you pretend that noise isn't coming from your engine, the more it is going to cost you, why are you waiting.
Are you at all mechanical, how about a friend? You can tear the engine down far enough in about 2 to 3 hours to find, then fix the problem.
Also, as an 03 with possible bad oil pump/engine issues, you are just asking for a blown engine.

 

The tapping sound has been coming from the top drivers side of the engine. This tapping sound follows a distinctive pattern. I changed the oil after using the valve cleaner called Valve Medic. I put Royal Purple synthetic oil (someone on this website said Royal Purple has detergents) and a bottle of Slick 50. I drove the car 200 miles on the highway and by the time I was finished driving 200 miles the tapping sound disappeared. I am not sure if the tapping will return. If it keeps returning I will have to probably go for a valve repair. My friend use to own a repair shop for foreign vehicles in summit NJ. He was telling me that a vehicle like this is very sensitive to changes in temperature and oil thickness. After looking at the dipstick and listening to the tapping he suggested that the valve heads had varnish on them. The dipstick had varnish on it. He insisted that I must keep the engine oil extremely clean at all times, use only full synthetic oil, change the oil every 2000 miles (maybe more often) and never let the engine get over heated and cook the oil. He suggested that the engine was dirty and that after a while the tapping will go away.

 

You have a very common noise that needs to be addressed by something other then oils and additives.
Your engine needs to be pulled down so you can inspect each lifter and cam lobe for wear, each push rod for wear and length and each rocker shaft/arm for wear.
Nothing else will find or fix your noise and the longer you put it off the more expensive it will be.

 

The best advice is get somebody more experienced with engine assembly and learn from them since trying to do it alone could be a recipe for disaster especially since you have spent all that time and money getting to this stage. There are a whole lot of little hints and signs that to a novice don't mean a thing and you just go on not realizing that something has happened that will cause you engine not to run correctly or worse. Check, check and recheck everything...take nothing for granted!

 

Guys , my honda civic 06 automatic with 75k mileage has a noise like tapping in the engine during idle. I noticed this last friday when i started the car in the morning. Then yesterday after 5 minutes of driving at speed of 30kph i heard the sound then it disappear afterwards. Today i checked again , i still hear the sound after 10 minutes in the idle position, sometimes it disappear and then it will come back.

I already put 4K since oli change with mobil1 synthetic. i leave here in Quebec Canada. Somebody said that it's normal during start up because of cold weather and try to change your gasoline to a higher number.

Has anybody experience this? Any recommendations/solutions?

Thanks.

 

Ok now it is over a year later and 78000 miles on my 2004 Disco 2. The tapping sound went away for this time period. I took my disco to a Land Rover dealership and also I found a good mechanic not associated with a dealership and both tried to hear the tapping but neither could. Well since that time no one could hear anything or any tapping. Then I had a head gasket job and changed the oil pump. I got the car back and a few weeks later I started hearing that same low tapping sound I heard a year ago. So that sound finally returned. If you aren't listening for it you would not notice it. If I put my ear low and in the tire opening it is definitely there. The sound annoys the cr*p out of me. I am not a mechanic but metal banging against metal like that can not be good. Eventually the metal has to wear away or something has to break. Again the sound is only there after the car warms up and specifically at a set idle speed. If I turn the AC on and the idle speed goes up it disappears. The tapping appears to more noticable down low near the ground. Also could be that I am just nuts too cause I feel like I am going nuts with this car.