hmm, slightly worried. blackbeast has started to make a ticking noise. It is most noticable when idling, it goes, tick, tick,tick,tick, repeat to fade. if you increase revs then the tick tick speed increases.

so, what is it? det? tappets?

Car seems to run with no problems, check engine has NOT come on

 

Markus
It sounds like tappets to me, not a huge problem.
Ron

 

Got same problem on Legacy. Starts when cold stops when engine is hot .Does some times when hot.
Could this be the same thing???

How difficult/expensive is it???

Clues / answers please

 

Cheers for the replies (plus the guys on scoobychat last night)

blackbeast is in for a full service in very near future, so I'll mention this to the garage as well.

you say that oil change will sort it for a short while, what's the long term solution, and more importantly, what would it cost?

 

I would agree that it is tappets. My MY94 also has this problem. An oil change helps the problem for a little while.

 

Replacing the tappet adjusters is £40ish each plus 1 days labour!!! Not cheap.
I changed to a fully synthetic oil and this seemed to virtually eliminate the noise - for now anyway.
Alex

 

I have a ticking noise which is deemed to be the speedo cable by a dealer. (UK Cars don't have a cable apparently)
Noise disappears over 40mph...

 

I also have a tapping noise at idle to 2500 rpm, especially when cold on an MY97.
I have opened the throttle when looking under the bonnet and it seems to come from the solenoid area, rather than engine.
Can't find any other fault.
Does the solenoid always make this noise or is it about to disintegrate?

nick

 

I also have tappet noise on my STi but because these are solid lifters I dont realy know what it entails doing to get rid of the noise. I have heard from a local ex-Subaru dealer that there is a product called "Super Roo" which has been specially made to deal with noisy tappets, dont know any more about it than that.

 

Heard this in a MY98 today. It was definately the boost control solenoid clicking all the time. It increased with revs. I'm not sure if should do this all the time?
Mine is a MY00 and doesn't do it.

Paul.

 

A similar problem I had with my old MY96 was the bake pipes running along the bulkhead and rattling against it at idle. This was sorted by dealer and they said it was a very common fault that resulted in a ticking sound. In fact they said loads of people had brought cars in thinking they had failing tappets.

I'm not totally sure, but I seem to remember this might have been subject to recall on earlier Imprezas?? I also think it's mentioned under the common faults on the SIDC site?

Moss

 

I dont suppose if you have noticed if there is a clock in the engine bay with wires coming out of it