sounds like a bag of spanners

[markeymagicbus]

hi all

if i leave it more than a few days between driving my camper , its sounds like a bag of spanners for the first few miles , surely thats not normal , it is parked on a slight slope !

or does it need new tappets , the van is a 1.9 watercooled and yes i ahve checked the oil level

[shaz and dan's van]

Ditto

Please someone say this is normal!!!

[markeymagicbus]

i find it a tad embarasing as the neighbours have watched me spend hours playing around with the engine ,now its sounds awful

[jason k]

yep its normal. take it out and give it a hiding and all will be well in about five miles.

[toomanytoys]

Can be "normal" if used for short trips
The correct oil is critical... DONT use anything less than a 15w40 and if particularly old and tired, then 20w50... Dont bother with superturbonutter synthetic.. (you wiull have a job to find it thick enough in any case... and use a "Mann" (oe manufacturer) filter... GSF have them... (or a gen VW one)

[kevtherev]

hydraulic tappets love oil/filter changes the more frequent they are the betterer the tappets sound.

some times periodic adjustment is necessary. see the wiki for that and Brickyard has some info too.

these engines love mineral oil (In winter I use 15/40 Diesel Oil in my 1.9..20/50 in summer) and long runs that pump up the tappet
if it's still noisy after ten miles change the oil and try again ... before you adjust.