Bag of spanners

[stc1973]

Hi all,

I've started my car the past 2 mornings and it sounds like a bag of spanners being shaken...after about a minute it's back to normal again. It doesn't sound like the typical tappety noise on start up, but something a lot more serious. There are no lights on the dash, oil level looks OK and there's no loss of power, any ideas as to what it could be or if its OK to drive it?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[foz01]

The search finction on the site is very good...

[iR8V10]

Sorry to hear that fella, I think you bought your 6 from me in 2007? Other than starting to sound like a bag of spanners, has she behaved herself??

[Daveperc]

There were a string of posts a few weeks back on this - it's the cold weather. Engine should be fine.

Dave

[SpeedSix]

I had this happen once to me a few weeks ago, on first cold fire it was A LOT more tappety than normal. After a minute or so it cleared up and went back to normal. Mine sounded like top end noise from the tappets, sort of like my old Vauxhall XE engine. Weird thing is it hasnt done it since?

I put it down to either a colder night than usual or the car had been a bit hotter the night before when I turned it off, so the oil was thinner and didnt stay in the top end?

Stu

[stc1973]

Its not just a tappety sound, it sounds more terminal...but does stop after a couple of minutes or so....and its not just in the cold weather, the evenings have been quite balmy (for march in the UK)
Dave, apart from the issue now, she's behaved herself impeccably, never missed a beat. I notice you couldn't stay away from the 6 for long

[R1NGA]

It'll be the Secondary Air Pump - look it up on the Search facility. Runs for about 2 mins when engine cold (ie: not hot) to pump clean air into exhaust. Big round canister on offside of engine bay.

Probably!

Phil G

[Nige_RS4]

Agree on the secondary air pump - it's probably become disconnected or has a split hose or something simple - nothing to worry about!