E36 Noisy Tappets/Lifters?

[nic777]

Hi everyone,

I have a '98 E36 316i which last week Thursday and yesterday (Sunday) started having noisy tappets/lifters.

The next morning on each occasion the noise seemed to go away. One thing I noticed that on those mornings opened up the reservoir and a bit of air escaped.

On each occasion, noisy and quiet tappets, the car ran like a dream.

My mechanic says its nothing to worry about. But I don't like it since it sounds like a old 70s kombi rather than my BMW

Has anyone had experience in this and solved it?

Is it perhaps something to worry about?

Google says that adding more oil (will check the levels tomorrow), adding better oil and checking oil pump pressure could help.

My head gasket got replaced 5 weeks ago.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[andrewbuch]

my car had that problem. BMW said its the lifters (tappets?) and then a few years later (car was on 88K Km) the engine seized.. Now i am driving a 1992 316i with 20K Km on the Engine

 

[Leon328]

What is the mileage on the car? It could be as simple as a good engine flush and new oil (good oil), or you might need an oil pump replacement.

Sometimes when the oil is old or it has not been replaced often enough sludge forms in the sump which leads to low oil pressure, leading to noisy lifters.

A rule of thumb according to RGM is that you must flush the motor on every oil change. It helps with all my cars. Also, some oils just don’t do it for certain BMW’s. My 540 used to do the same with the old Helix, now I only run the good Castrol stuff and no problem.

 

[STREETRACER]

What oil are you running? first try Shell Helix oil! if car has under 200k km's go for the gray can full syntetic! if you have more than 200k km's on go for semi synthetic blue can!!! it solved my brothers 325's vanos rattle noise!!

Im the worst guy to ask for advice!!! if it was my cabbie i would have opened her up or got someone to have a look at it before the shit hits the fan!!! thing is if you try to be cheap now and its serious you will have big shit and most propably need to be towed home in trafic on your way home!!

But ill try the oil thing first!! but if that does not solve it get it looked at while its still only anoying and no damage yet!
i dont know the 4cyl bmw engines at all never worked on one!! are they solid lifter or hydrolic lifter??