Minimization

Sounds like valve noise but could also be from pulleys, etc. The car runs great, never beat on, change synthetic often, doesn't consume oil or blow any blue smoke. I've noticed it for a while but I'm paranoid that it might be getting noisier. New water pump BTW.

92 kmi

S4Patrick

Could be a bad accessory belt tensioner assembly.....

Minimization

Are these known to make noise?

UberVier

I had a slappy, plasticky sound at startup and randomly a couple days before I took it in. Idler pulley was falling apart, as was the seal inside the harmonic balancer from what I was told. They thought it was def. a water pump at first, but the sound was too plasticky to be that. That was my last dealer visit, last warranty visit. About 3 days before my warranty expired due to time.

mbox

..happened to me and the stealers said it needed to be "retorqued".

FBAnder

then my K-04s went in and when the car was back together, the noise was gone.

I assume you can hear it best next to a building (say a drive-thru) window and its not a constant droning rattle. That's what my sound was like.

Snow Trooper

any idea what the shop actually did?

mbox

IIRC, no parts were replaced. The sewing machine sound increased w/ RPMs and could easily be heard cold or hot.

Immediately following, I started getting misfires on all cylinders which was fixed by replacing the spark plugs. Not sure if this had anything to do with the cam tensioners but worth noting anyway.