sounds like a lifter tick.

 

what do i do? add more oil? its not outrageously loud like some of the videos i have seen on here but its noticeable

 

OP, my suggestion is that you don't add oil assuming you added the proper amount carefully...that's 7.5 L for an Xi I believe.

I think you should go looking, maybe, for an air leak, which would also cause ticking sounds to be attenuated. Just read recently of a guy here hunting for a solution to his engine's ticking...turned out to be a cracked lower intake boot. Go figure!

 

That's what happens when you to cheap to pay for extra 1$ at the dealer BMW OIL. .. rasults of a noise engine ans confused driver on what it should be...

It definitely the oil you using ...

Bmw dealer oil will have your engine running clean at 300k plus is special made for your car... you should feel special haha

Sent from my ZTE-X500

 

German Castrol (0w-30) is superior to dealer oil.

 

It could be an injector making the ticking noise. My injectors are making quite a bit of ticking noise now. Check you're spark plugs at well. That will be the next thing that I replace on mine.

 

Did I mention hose in this thread? TL;dr.

 

you're certainly on the right track with GC. The best oil for your car money can buy and quite possibly the best oil period. Genuine BMW is also world class. Anyway not much you can do but just sit back and see if it goes away. Change your oil and filter properly and often.

 

"BMW Recommends Castrol" is What the oil cap says. Im pretty sure BMW oil in North America is castrol though

 

could be exhaust leak too.
mine has this ticking sound at the lower engine area. the top end is pretty quiet.

 

you should seafoam your engine and hopefuly it cleans out the issue

 

This is true, I did run some sea foam through mine and it is a slight bit quieter. I ran mine through the break booster

 

that wont get to the lifter if its the issue. you only cleaning the cylinders by doing that.

 

but... but... seafoam is a magical cure-all that fixes problems that it doesn't even touch! I mean, just last week I used seafoam and it stopped my valve cover leak and cured my neighbors prostate cancer!

 

...and it replaced my entire cooling system for me...

 

on the subject of sea foam. for cleaning the lifters etc. would you put the sea foam in your gas tank or oil. I've not long done an oil change so i don't want to stick it in some fresh oil. I'm almost down to a quarter tank of gas so i might stick 1/3 of the smaller can in there.

When i did it through the intake i barley got any smoke. For a car with 190,000 i was expecting clouds to appear above my house. I did get some when i revved it to about 4,000 rpm

 

the only ticking I got from my e46s over the years was a hole in the coilpack boot which caused the spark to jump to the cyclinder walls resulting in a ticking that was in sync with the revs.

 

problem still persists, oil is full. i'm getting frustrated

 

Any fault codes? Haven't seen any mentioned yet.

 

no codes

 

sounds like something you might have to live with. sound coming from the top end?

 

i'm not sure where its coming from

 

It could be an exhaust leak.

 

I usually get a ticking sound from my engine when I start it. Then it disappears after a few seconds. It has been like this for nearly 2 years. I always thought it might be a problem with the oil pump. It tends to be a bit longer than a few seconds after an oil change. Anybody got an idea on this one?

 

I started it up 2 minutes ago to take it to an indy mechanic that speciqalizes in BMW's and the noise wasn't there...go figure. I don't want to waste time driving there if I won't be able to replicate the sound in front of them.

 

you sure its not the DISA? those are known to make noise. try unplugging it?

 

^ almost forgot about that one.

 

Would Auto RX help?

 

Is the German Castrol 10W-30 you guys speak of available at Autozone or O'reilly's auto? Currently using M1 0W40 and want to try something different.