Yes please guys we need to get this solved. My has the same noise. I can hear it on the timing chain side right under the valve cover on number 1 coil to.

 

Here's my contribution:Mine is a more distinct knocking sound.

Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated. Oil is fresh, valve adjustment and plugs were done a few months ago. Don't have the time or mechanical inclination to start self diagnosing. Just like to get my head around how serious this is and what it might end up costing me.

 

Dam bro that sounds like a knock to me. And the sound stays even when you accelerate.

 

I have this noise too on my ap1 with 87k. Sounds like it's coming from the top of cyl 1. Only hear it during idle at running temp. Reving the engine makes it go away or drowns it out. Billman recently did my valve retainers and tct, he wasn't concerned about it. Car makes good power, compression was fine when I got the car 3 years ago with 80k on it. I removed the belt, noise was still there.

 

Having posted before on this thread and the UK thread linked to above I may have made some progress.

I discovered when I depress the clutch the rhythm of the noise changes, I removed my clutch slave cylinder then pulled the fork as far as I could and greased the pivot pin in the fork and the ball end, hey presto the noise all but went away, it has however come back slightly, maybe as the grease gets dispersed !

My thoughts are the pivot pin in the fork can work loose over time and "rattle" this is possibly the cause. Of course the only way to tell for certain is to pull the gearbox and check/replace the fork then. I am buggered if I am going to remove the box to make 100% sure.

 

That's interesting. Getting my clutch done by billman in march. Maybe it will go away. If not, I'm going to try 0w-30.

 

This is interesting. The knocking sound, (that I still have), changes a little as well. I assumed it was because when the clutch is depressed, the engine load changes. I'll take a look at the pin. Come to think of it, I did have my clutch replaced a few hundred miles before the "magic" oil change that I mention in the original post.

Since the sound 100% goes away when the engine is warm, I'm not getting my hopes up that it's clutch/transmission related. That would be too easy, haha.

 

The weird thing about my car is the noise is still there when warm

 

Back from the dead.

I forgot about all of this until I got a few messages on YouTube. The sound has almost gone away. I have done nothing mechanical to the car since the original post. I've simply driven it and performed a few oil changes. I went from the original "culprit" Castrol, to Purple, to now Mobil 1 (All synthetic 10W-30). The sound is just barely audible now, and only for a few seconds after startup. It makes zero sense, imo, but I'm not complaining. I'm sorry if this doesn't help anyone. Just keep up with your oil changes, and maybe try another brand/viscosity.