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Re: Tappet Noise
Posted by Unknown Sender (more from Unknown Sender) on Sun, 25 May 2003 18:15:36
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

>My 1986 white 900 S has 250,000 miles and had developed a 'tappet' noise

$1800? I'm in the wrong business!! The valve lifters (or cam followers, as
Bentley calls them) do wear. They are hydraulically actuated, and the seals
eventually give way, causing them to stop holding hydraulic pressure. This
very thing happened a couple of years ago on my 1987 900S. There are two
other problems that could cause it that come to mind, too: overall low oil
pressure (easy to check if you can borrow a gauge from someone) or a broken
feeder tube under the valve cover that feeds the oil to the cam followers.
(this is pretty unlikely if no one has been in the engine recently)

The first thing I would do is pull the valve cover and inspect the feeder
tubes. Assuming they're okay, take a wooden dowel or something that won't
scar up the surface of the followers and try to push them down. If the oil
seals are okay, the follower will be rock hard and you won't be able to budge
it. If you have a soft one, it will be immediately apparent. (I had two on my
car.) Once you find them, you have to decide what to do next. Your best
choice would be to buy a Bentley manual (if you don't already have one) and
tackle the job yourself, maybe with the help of a mechanical friend if you
don't feel confident enough yourself. The job shouldn't take more than a few
hours. The followers aren't particularly cheap new (was your $1800 quote to
replace all 16?), so you may only want to replace the broken ones. Of course,
this means that you may have to do this job again, but it will be much easier
the second time, and you'll already have the books and tools you need. Such
is life with a car with 250,000 miles!

Good luck,

John Francis
1987 900S 180,000
1990 900 118,000

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