wen i start my car up on a morning there is a light rattle which laasts for about 2 seconds then goes of as soon as the oil pressure goes up. do these cars have hydraulic tappets. if so could this be the noise i,m hearing when the engine is hot, the sound only seems to come on after i have driven hard for a bit. and dosnt do it under load or over run. just when you dip the clutch and rev it slightly. i dont want this to end up being the little end rattle which i think it could be. has any one had the little ends go on them. my oil pressure is always good even when hot. i changed the oil the other day to the recommended semi synth 10 - 40. i used castrol magnatesc. should i put a better oil in or is this a decent oil. i have had quite a few engine failures on other cars and this dosnt sound anywhere near like big or little ends, it sounds more like the old cvh hydraulic tappets that were in the RS turbos.i think coz i know its there i am listening for it all the time and not enjoying drivin her at the min. i also reckon if it were a major engine comonent like the bearings it would get very bad very quickly.

 

Any help or advice would be apreciated.

 

George :(

wen i start my car up on a morning there is a light rattle which laasts for about 2 seconds then goes of as soon as the oil pressure goes up. do these cars have hydraulic tappets. if so could this be the noise i,m hearing when the engine is hot, the sound only seems to come on after i have driven hard for a bit. and dosnt do it under load or over run. just when you dip the clutch and rev it slightly. i dont want this to end up being the little end rattle which i think it could be. has any one had the little ends go on them. my oil pressure is always good even when hot. i changed the oil the other day to the recommended semi synth 10 - 40. i used castrol magnatesc. should i put a better oil in or is this a decent oil. i have had quite a few engine failures on other cars and this dosnt sound anywhere near like big or little ends, it sounds more like the old cvh hydraulic tappets that were in the RS turbos.i think coz i know its there i am listening for it all the time and not enjoying drivin her at the min. i also reckon if it were a major engine comonent like the bearings it would get very bad very quickly.

 

Any help or advice would be apreciated.

 

George :(

yea it sounds like your lifters are leaking down overnight bud,no harm in running some engine flush through it then fresh oil back in. does no damage waiting for them to "pump" up in the morning just dont sound nice :)

George it certainly sounds like the tappets and yes they are hydraulic. I think most owners experience that initial rattle when first starting as they do need to repressurise. My car has only covered 40K or so miles and it also has a hint of a rettle which goes within seconds. The small ends are not items which tend to fail on Zeds, but bigends certainly do. I think changing the oil regularly and using a proper Nissan oil filter is the best way of maintaining your engine, and reason for the Nissan filter is because some pattern parts do not have a non return valve for the oil so it runs back to the sump and has to be primed again on start up.

i,m gonna do another oil change this week end and try a fully synth 10 - 50. will flush engine before hand. this hopfully will stop the intermittant rattle after the car gets hot, come to think of it it ony seems to have gotton worse since i put the castrol in...

well i just hope that this is a problem with the tappets, something i can sort out.