Engine ticking on cold start

[Milgram]

Hi All,

This morning I started my car for the first time in two days. We've had some cold weather in Melbourne over the past two mornings, yesterday was the coldest in a decade and this morning was not much warmer (maybe 5-6 degrees). The car is kept undercover in a garage.

Anyway, I started the car and noticed there was a pronounced ticking noise that increased and decrease in line with the RPMs. The noise disappeared after a minute or so of idling. The ticking sound resembled shaking a spray paint can.

My 1999 V6 Camry has done 216,000kms and I have owned it since 109,000kms. I've never experienced this noise before.

Does anyone have any idea what the ticking could be? Does anyone else experience this?

[Guest]

Hi All,

This morning I started my car for the first time in two days. We've had some cold weather in Melbourne over the past two mornings, yesterday was the coldest in a decade and this morning was not much warmer (maybe 5-6 degrees). The car is kept undercover in a garage.

Anyway, I started the car and noticed there was a pronounced ticking noise that increased and decrease in line with the RPMs. The noise disappeared after a minute or so of idling. The ticking sound resembled shaking a spray paint can.

My 1999 V6 Camry has done 216,000kms and I have owned it since 109,000kms. I've never experienced this noise before.

Does anyone have any idea what the ticking could be? Does anyone else experience this?

Sounds like an oiling issue, have you changed the oil recently?

It could also be that the oil in your car is too viscous for the climate, perhaps you will need to use a thinner oil on your next oil change.

[Ozzcaddy]

Most likely as mentioned by Mick that it is a oil issue, oil not reaching the upper part of the engine (lifters) to lubricate them. Eventually the oil gets there, but ignoring problem could lead to other more serious problems.

I second Micks comments about the oil change and/or changing to a thinner oil during the colder months.

Edited May 12, 2011 by Ozzcaddy

[Milgram]

Thank you for the replies.

I spoke to an Engineer at work, he has pretty much said the same thing and said it sounds like the lifters were briefly starved of oil. I run 20-50W oil and the oil was changed 6,000kms ago, both of which do not ring alarm bells for me.

I'll continue to monitor over the next couple of mornings and see if the problem returns.

[Ozzcaddy]

With the heavier grade oil your using (high mileage engines) it's taking that little longer to lubricate everything during colder months. It's probably a trade off, heavier oil for high mileage engine or lighter oil to lubricate everything quicker but will most likely use oil in between changes.