Got a uk 2002 sti & its suddenly started to make a tapping sound on passenger side head?? It sounds to me like a tapper bucket but not sure if they are hydraulic or not?? Doesn't sound like a bottom end though,, it come 3 times now but didn't seem to effect the performance of car,, any ideas on how hard a job this could be if it is tapper cheers in advance

 

Unlikely to be a follower as they are solid, whats the milage? It could be big ends, alot of People mistake this for a head issue. Reason being, when the bearing fails the piston starts to hit the head, so the noise comes from the head. Easy way to check, drop the oil through a clean cloth and check for bronze debris in the oil.

 

Mileage is only 54k,, it only seems to come when engine warms up ????will drop oil as you say tomorrow hopefully thanks

 

i had same issues few weeks ago, same cylinder.

start off by checking if your spark plug is tight in there. I removed it and refited spark plug just in case. (it wasn't the spark plug)

what my issue was it that the HT lead was not properly fitted on the sparkplug. it was close enough to not cause missfire, but yet not well fitted enough and caused like a tapping noise.