I have a "tapping" noise coming from the top of my engine. It sounds as if the valves are making this noise due oil issues. This only occurs at start-up (for 2 seconds), and at idle once the oil temperature has gone up. The noise immediately goes away once I increase the RPMs by as little as 100 to 200 RPMs. I have a 2001 1.8 and I have checked to make sure the oil is at the correct level. I'm afraid this has something to do with sludge and I am wondering if someone can offer any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

Cam chain tensioner maybe, does the sound resemble a diesel engine? You can check oil pressure through a mechanical gauge.

My method (maybe not a good one at all?) to check oil pressure, is through the following: VAG measuring blocks under instrument cluster.. there is a reading that says oil pr2 OK (meaning the pressure is strong enough to affect the pressure switch) or oilpr2<min, if it says oilpr2<min, it means the oil pressure isnt strong enough to trip the pressure switch. The reason the pressure light doesnt come on is becuase the rpms have to be at a certain rate (just under 2,000 maybe?) for the pressure switch to affect the pressure light. As a reference, my car varies usually at idle it says oil pr2OK, but when it is really cold it will say <min every once and a while and if i just barley press the gas it goes to OK. Anyway, my point is, if VAG said the pressure was low, and you revved your engine up a little and it still didnt switch to OK, then maybe you would have a problem.. In my opinion it works good to at least keep track of your oil pressure over the long term and see if it is getting worse. Hope that made sense.... The valves on these engines are on the loud side anyway too I think btw.

 

Thanks for the input. I definitely think its the valves as the noise is similar to the noise made after you change the oil and start the car for the first time. The noise does go right away and I just wanted to make sure there isn't a major underlying problem here. Thanks again.

 

wasnt there a topic about this before? it has something to do with pressure needed to start up the engine or something, and during the 2 sec it is building up. everyones car does that with start up.

 

here is the link for that post
https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=148011

 

its normal during start-up initially...if it does it while idling say, at a stop light, might want to get it checked out