I've noticed over the past month or so my engine has started to kind of rattle when you blip the throttle stationary in neutral (a very slight tappet rattle?). The car is pushing two years old and done about 13k miles oil topped up and never dropped below half on the dip-stick.

I assume its just the engine loosening up from new. It sound nothing like the old Ford Fiesta engine rattle, just sounds different than it once did.

Its probably nothing but i've no idea

 

my engine is a little 'noisy' in this respect......but it pulls cleanly and strongly to the redline

I've noticed when it's idling and the bonnet is up it's a bit 'clicky'......In relative terms a 240bhp ouput for a normally aspirated engine is monstrous so any noises I hear I put down to the high state of tune

Also I doubt there is as much sound deadening between driver and engine as there is in other cars

 

Mine has seemed to have v. slight rattle since new... just thought this was normal... rattle stops when I switch the engine off, gets louder when I press the right peddle...

Maybe you've just started noticing it??

 

Very true I could of just started to notice the noise, the engine pulls and drives as new. So it probably is just me...

 

mine rattles a little when I turn the engine off..........

I'd say unless it was smoking, not pulling cleanly all the way to the red line or using loads and loads of oil I'd not worry

If it's within warranty and got a FHSH I'd just suck it and see

 

Mine has a little rattle as well, but when you think about what goes on inside the engine it's hardly suprising really. As long as it doesn't get any worse I'm not worried.

 

Mine has a little noise from one tappet when cold. Hardly worth mentioning, so I dunno why I did.

One of the MX-5's used to have a terrible startup rattle from one tappet if left out in sub-zero weather (tolerences too tight?). It went once the oil pressure had built. (Hydraulic lifters!)

If your car rattles when you blip at idle, try it with the clutch thrown. It is probably the input shaft/clutch plaste.

 

Nearly always impossible to diagnose noises reliably from a text description. People don't describe sounds the same.

Anyway, it's likely to be valve adjustment. The valves aren't normally adjusted spot on from the factory - though normally better than after a Honda dealer 'adjusts' them.

The valve train on vtec engines is always a little noisy - comes from having rockers. The rockers are needed for vtec, whereas a lot of modern engines don't have rockers, but have the cam driving the valves directly via a shim bucket. That's why vtec engines seem a bit more 'tappety' and more like an older engine. With properly adjusted valves though, they're not noisy.

I won't mention the other possibiltys as they're unlikely to be the problem... it would just make people into engine hypochondriacs (sp?) posting about them!

-Brian.