Fiat Brava - tappet noise.

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Thu 30 Aug 2001 09:53
Fiat Brava - tappet noise. - Anthony Eeles
Hi,

My Fiat Brava ( '98, 1.4SX 12v), has an extremely loud tappet-type ticking noise that changes tempo in time with the engine accel/decelerating, the noise doesn't disapear after the engine warms up, but engine performance isn't really affected, but it has been getting a little warmer than usual. It comes from the top left of the engine bay, vagueley near the cam belt tensioner.

I took it to Fiat in croyodn where an off-duty fiat mechanic told me that it was just some gunge in the tappets, and to do an oil flush, and an oil change, neither of which have made any difference.

Not being desperately 'mechanically sympathetic' I wonder if anyone can tell me if this is an early symptom of the classic bravX/marea cambelt failure, and or reccommend a good fiat specialist in the croydon area.

The car has 48k muiles and had a full service 8k miles again, and as pointed out in the car-by-car breakdown, it started life as a rental car. It didn't tick until the last 3k miles or so.

Cheers

Anthony
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Thu 30 Aug 2001 10:03
Re: Fiat Brava - tappet noise. - David Woollard
Anthony,

Get this looked at asap, it could be serious. Also look at my thread "Fiat Brava Timing Belt" on the previous page.

The noise could be the start of the tensioner pulley breaking up or a slack timing belt slapping the plastic cover.

The other issue is that it is now accepted (but not by Fiat I guess) that the oil change intervals for this engine were too long. Fiat spec was semi-syn only and some may not have bothered to keep to this. In any case the oil feed to the cam/valves can be reduced by gumming up and this tapping could be wear already.

Regards,

David
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Thu 30 Aug 2001 10:07
Re: Fiat Brava - tappet noise. - Anthony Eeles
David.

Thanks for this

Do you reccommend any good fiat garages?
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Fri 31 Aug 2001 08:19
Suitable repairers. - David Woollard
Sorry Anthony I don't know any Fiat garages to bring to your attention. But this engine isn't complex and any decent Motor Engineer could work on it.

I would judge their likely skills by an enquiry about the possible problem, if they respond with an explanation about the known faults with this engine it shows an understanding that should be a start.

David
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Sat 1 Sep 2001 22:49
Re: Suitable repairers. - Mike Jacobs
I agree with David. Could be something about to break in the timing department. Timing belts when very worn and about to break can create more tappet noise. Regards,
Mike
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