As title.

My Uk '97 often sounds pretty horrid in the morning, sounds right for piston slap, clatters away for a while on the way to work. The curious thing is that some mornings it'll be clattery 20 minutes, some 10, others, such as this morning it's sweet and quiet straight off. In all cases it will have been parked up for at least 9-10 hours over night. It usually still does it at lunchtime, but not for so long, and again in the evening at home time, but only for 5 minutes or so, so I thought it was just temperature related and that the engine retained some heat during the day. This morning is cold and damp in Aberdeen though, and the car didn't move between 5:30 last night and 7:45 this morning, so the engine and oil was definately fully cold, but it was quiet and sweet as anything straight off this morning.

Could it still be piston slap or would that be there every morning ?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

I've noticed the same mate, MY96 uk. Mines been a right slapper this winter, very noticable on the cold mornings. I've been turnin the stereo right up before starting sometimes it makes me cringe that much.
Sweet as a nut though after 10 - 15 mins. Other week though starts her up and nothing, no slapping at all, I reckon there has to be more too it than just temp cause its back again now.
When you say clatters on the way to work do you mean when around the idle mark? My symptoms dissapear when actually driving which I believe to be right for piston slap.

cheers
Ritchie.

 

No, mine clatters more when revved actually, basically when there is any load on it until it warms up.

 

Sounds like there is a small possibility it is tappets not piston slap?

Try changing to Motul 300V Competition 15W50 oil from www.camskill.com and see if the noise goes..

My MY96 UK was tappety but not on Motul..

JGM

 

Nice one, that would be good if that was it.

 

Mine after services is always less noisier due to fresh oil, on the other hand the slapy noise isn't remarkable in my car.
JIM

 

I had a clattery/raspy sound and it was intermittent... at first i thought it was piston slap and after having a feel around the up-pipe i noticed the heat shield had come lose and the upipe was leaking from the joint... got that fixed and no more raspy noise... could be worth checking the up-pipe..

 

It depends on the temp, doesn't it - I only get piston slap on a cold winter morning, and none during warmer sunny days... It's all about the pistons being fractionally too small when they are cold, so days of different temps would cause more or less slap, I'd have thought.

 

i have the same problem from start up when cold in the mornins. sounds terrible for about 5 mins till it warms up then its perfect. ive heard my98 to my00 models have been prone to piston slap though. i normally leave mine idleing for a while before i drive off.

 

If it is piston slap, then the piston has worn around the skirt. Thicker oil will mask the sound though the damage has been done. At some point it will need to come out & be changed.....

 

That was the point though, as I mentioned, Friday morning was cold and wet, and the car had been sitting since 5:30 the previous day - surely perfect conditions for it to be slappy - but it was silent - why ?

 

It is not good to let the car warm up on idle.. you are leaving the car in the maximum wear situation for longer.. just start it and drive off, keeping off boost and below 3000rpm until at least the coolant is at normal temperature (oil takes longer to get up to temp) before using boost etc..
If it is tappet then a good quality oil might quieten it down.. if it is piston slap then it won't. I think the newer cars have shimms to no tappets to be noisy but not sure on which year the change was made.

JGM