Z4-forum.com

Hi all,

I'm a proud new owner of a 2006 Z4 Coupe, absolutely love it. I would like to express a big thank you to everyone on this forum for some great writing, a huge aid to me making the decision to buy.

All has been going well up until this morning when my car starting ticking on start, see the video below.



And yes I have read loads of other posts on here regarding this, but if somebody could provide some clarity on the specific noise that I'm experiencing that would be fantastic as I'm not sure if this is the same noise as others. It seems to disappear after about 10 minutes of driving.

It also seems unclear if this causes any long term damage, could anybody shine some light on this?

Thanks again, and sorry for my incompetence!

Normal N52 woes unfortunately.. take it for what they call an "Italian tune-up" and the noise should disappear for some time.
Do you drive it daily? if so.. how many miles do you travel?

Hi and welcome aboard
Sorry can't help with your problem as I know naff all about E86's

To a certain extent its not uncommon on cold start to get ticking on the lifters . Few questions that may lead to a answer
How long since last oil change ?
Is oil level correct ?
Is oil correct grade ?
As mentioned are you only running the car on short start - stop journeys therefore not allowing a full warm up ?
If no answers have a read here as it offers a great insight in very plain english to the possible problem & a possible solution

http://www.quirkyuncle.com/2013/04/12/d ... fter-tick/

No doubt you found my thread.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10937

Details of driving habit would be good, how long has it been left standing etc.

The nail on the head for me was when collecting from the dealer after an oil change (from memory) started the car up with the SA standing next to it. All fine, left it idling for a few minutes whilst having a general chat and it started getting noisy.

Patterns are hard to establish with this issue, my car did a 50 mile round trip every other day and nothing in the day between. Always driven properly not Miss Daised. I would love to know the long term effects as I don't believe it cannot damage the engine, but haven't done any research in recent years.

coupedan wrote:Normal N52 woes unfortunately.. take it for what they call an "Italian tune-up" and the noise should disappear for some time.
Do you drive it daily? if so.. how many miles do you travel?

Will try an italian tune up tonight, and not many miles at all, around 7 a day maybe. Starting to realise that this could well be the problem.

mr wilks wrote:To a certain extent its not uncommon on cold start to get ticking on the lifters . Few questions that may lead to a answer
How long since last oil change ?
Is oil level correct ?
Is oil correct grade ?
As mentioned are you only running the car on short start - stop journeys therefore not allowing a full warm up ?
If no answers have a read here as it offers a great insight in very plain english to the possible problem & a possible solution

http://www.quirkyuncle.com/2013/04/12/d ... fter-tick/

The last oil change was from the dealer I bought it from (non BMW) so I'm not sure if it's the correct oil, so a service at BMW may be required to find that out. That link is very helpful indeed, thank you.

srhutch wrote:No doubt you found my thread

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10937

Details of driving habit would be good, how long has it been left standing etc.

The nail on the head for me was when collecting from the dealer after an oil change (from memory) started the car up with the SA standing next to it. All fine, left it idling for a few minutes whilst having a general chat and it started getting noisy.

Patterns are hard to establish with this issue, my car did a 50 mile round trip every other day and nothing in the day between. Always driven properly not Miss Daised. I would love to know the long term effects as I don't believe it cannot damage the engine, but haven't done any research in recent years.

I have seen your thread yes, you seem to be the fountain of knowledge on this topic! I think everybody has learnt from your experiences and thank you for sharing them.

I think I'll just make sure its driven properly (higher revs when warm etc), maybe an oil change and see how it goes. It's only been in the last few weeks where I've been driving it only short distances (to the train station and back, around 7 miles) so maybe the long way home might be a good excuse to open it up a bit more. I'd be very interested to hear if anybody has had any long term effects from this issue.

Oh my, I hadn't read anything about HVA ticking etc before I bought Red. Got to be honest, it wouldn't have changed my mind, I *had* to have one regardless.

I had also thought about running another car for daily drives ... have now shelved that plan. At the moment though, I only drive every other day.
Hope you get your problem sorted OP

Mine used to tap badly when I used to drive it only 5 miles or so a day.. Bowie doing around 60 the problem has stopped

So is the issue the frequent short journeys, or the lack of use?

I.e. doing 3 miles a day every day or doing 100miles trip in one go, once a week. What's worse?

To be honest.. I find that many short journeys are worse.. As the oil doesn't circulate as it should.
At least that's what I find with mine.. I tried going down the warranty route but BMW basically told me that I'm full of crap and put me on my way.

ChrisN53 wrote:So is the issue the frequent short journeys, or the lack of use?

I.e. doing 3 miles a day every day or doing 100miles trip in one go, once a week. What's worse?

Definitely the 3mile a day not good for any car .

Thank you all for the help, I think we've deduced that short journeys aren't good for the N52! How does everybody else cope with this? Do you have other cars for all the short meaningless journeys?

mr wilks wrote:

ChrisN53 wrote:So is the issue the frequent short journeys, or the lack of use?

I.e. doing 3 miles a day every day or doing 100miles trip in one go, once a week. What's worse?

Definitely the 3mile a day not good for any car .

What Mr Wilks said, but for this particular problem I don't believe there is a pattern.

E86montego wrote:Thank you all for the help, I think we've deduced that short journeys aren't good for the N52! How does everybody else cope with this? Do you have other cars for all the short meaningless journeys?

I know it's going to be different for most people but if I do a spout of short journeys, once I start hearing the tapping, I will try and take it for a long, hard drive if time permits. If not then I will leave it until I am back at work and resuming to my normal 60 miles a day.

coupedan wrote:

E86montego wrote:Thank you all for the help, I think we've deduced that short journeys aren't good for the N52! How does everybody else cope with this? Do you have other cars for all the short meaningless journeys?

I know it's going to be different for most people but if I do a spout of short journeys, once I start hearing the tapping, I will try and take it for a long, hard drive if time permits. If not then I will leave it until I am back at work and resuming to my normal 60 miles a day.

Seems logical! I toyed with the idea of having a second car to eliminate the shorter journeys, but would it do more harm leaving the Z4 un driven for consecutive days?