lmelvin

I have a 93 s4 with 110 K miles. I was listening to the engine with hood up running on a cold morning and I noticed it's a bit of a noisy motor, sounds like valve chatter, no pinging as far as I can tell. Plus pinging doesnt usually occur at idle right? Anyone know if this is how these are or should I look further into the issue. Oil pressure is good, oil is new and to the line. I had a honda prelude 2.2 once that was the same way and it always drove me crazy 'til my mechanic buddy said it was normal engine noise. Any thoughts anyone? If you haven't listened to yours yet, check it out maybe we can get some comparisons going.
-thanks

lmelvin

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

type44

none for me @ 145k. and no pinging doesnt occur at idle (unless theres some very serious problems, but even then...

es-car-go

I own 2 S4's and both AAN engines have no valve chatter at all.
One has 145K miles for example.

AAN's run smooth and quiet.

You may have a sagging 'bucket tappet' (lifters ) as they are called by Audi.

Of course my diagnosis may be off considering I am just reading and not listening to your engine.

Jeff

mchaloux

Engine noises are weird, sometimes they are described in a certain way that leads a person to suggest a particular cause. Then when they actually hear it, it's altogether different from what they anticipated. I sense noises can be beneficial in diagnostics but perhaps what we should do is develop a sound library where a known sound is attributed to a known source. Do you think you could get a sound clip and let us hear it?

lmelvin

I just read all about noisy valve trains in an oldsmobile manual, hey that;s all I could find. And here's what it said. In order to properly diagnose any valve train problems based on noise, the engine must be totally warmed up for atleast 20-30 minutes. I heard my "loud" valve train after 1 minute of starting the car. It wasn't really very loud at all, just louder than I thought it would be. I'll recheck soon after a proper warm up. I seriously doubt there is an issue at only 110 K miles and I am a bit of a worry wart when it comes to my car. I looked up some videos of noisy engines online and they were all 100 times louder and worse sounding than mine. I'll update as soon as I have my mechanic buddy check it out.