My 2008 is a Ticking time bomb..

[Gary07110]

Hey guys.. Quick question please... I live in the northeast and it\'s starting to get colder. When I start my car I can hear a very audible clicking/ticking noise. Only it isn\'t only reserved for mornings..I have also noticed this noise after a long drive. Any ideas? Thx.

[aftercorbu]

sounds like a fuel pump noise and is normal. i am a new z4 owner myself, so can't speak intelligently regarding this car, but that ticking is normal in most other cars i have owned.

[Gary07110]

Thanks! Appreciate it. And this is something you would hear intermittently ?

[v3.0si]

your '08 has an n52...

most likely it is the hydraulic lifters. if you have warranty left, take it to your dealer. they will do 1 of 3 things...

1) bleed the head - there may be some sludge build-up in the head that is not allowing equal dispersion of the oil during operation. if this is the case, consider changing your oil more frequently.

2) replace the lifters - 1 or more of the lifters may be faulty

3) replace the head - the ticking is caused by a design flaw in the head where there was no check valve keeping to oil in the head when the car shuts off. the replacement heads are now equipped with check valves.

your dealer will typically perform the repairs in that order, mainly due to their cost. why replace the head first when replacing the lifters may have solved it?

keep in mind... the ticking isn't necessarily a bad thing. i do agree though, it is annoying!

[Gary07110]

Again.. Thanks for the information. Will do. It certainly is annoying.

[E86Z]

^^ what he said

Also I did my 55 point confidence package inspection today and I asked the mechanic about the n52 lifter issue. He said mostly this happens on cars that are not driven hard as the oil does not reach the lifters when driven lightly. He said he's seen in more on 1 and 3 series n52 cars, more so on automatics (again likely due to people not driving the cars hard)

Mine is a 06 and it doesn't seem to have the problem but I don't know if anything was replaced by the previous owner under warranty.

[v3.0si]

the '07 z4c 3.0si had the head replaced at 12.5k mi, and was trouble free after that.

my current '08 z4c 3.0si has 23.5k mi on it, and i've had zero issues with it.

i think it may just come down to individual cars, not so much a range of VIN's.

[BTM]

For more info, there is a sticky on E90post regarding this

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13504