Ever since I took delivery of the car, I can hear very minor tapping/popping noises coming from the engine/engine bay. Like popcorn popping but much quieter with higher frequency. Maybe I thought it was the valves tapping but since it was like this since it was new, I've always assumed that wasn't the case. I can hear it clearly when I'm standing outside the car during idle and slightly from inside the car if I focus on it. Definitely not when driving, since all other noises would overpower it. Is this normal? Perhaps something in the engine, the timing chain, the drive belts, cylinder movement, etc? I dunno what the noise is coming from.

 

Is it a rhythmic pattern of tapping/popping, like a tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick that increases in frequency of ticks as the RPMs rise? Most likely that would be valve train noise and it's normal on the S2000 (within reason).

Or is it a clack...tick...popity, clack...tick...clack. That I would guess is the exhaust heating up and cooling down.

 

Normal valve train noise. I'd bet my left pinky toenail on it.