Club 80-90 Forums

Hello chaps,

So my T25 1.9 DG is back to her old tricks again and playing up. This time the engine has developed a rather loud ticking noise and it sounds like it’s located in the centre left of the engine. I’ve already had a hydraulic lifter fail and so they’ve been changed a few months ago and I’ve checked them again (pressing on the top of the pushrod) to see if they had failed again, but they were all firm. So I’m at a slight loss, to my knowledge the main sources of a ticking noise are the lifters but I’m pretty certain they are all fine. She is also driving completely fine with no rough idle or stalling that would indicate the valves not functioning properly.

My other theory is that it could be the water pump? The coolant reservoir level seems to have increased slightly from when I last filled it and according to the temperature reading on the dash she’s taking longer to get up to temperature. I haven’t had any overheating problems yet however.

My second theory is it could be to do with her fuel. She’s been travelling through Europe and has been running on E5 but now we’ve hit Germany I’ve had to change her back to E10; the ticking noise developed about 4 or 5 days after this so I’m wondering wether some kind of seal could have been eaten away?

Anyway I’m at quite the loss and so any advice is much appreciated! I can provide a video that would help as well!

Thanks in advance all

Okay so I’ve done a little bit of diagnosis after my last post and I think it’s the distributor on its way out but if someone could perhaps help confirm that would be great. I’ll include two videos here of the engine running with the ticking noise and then me moving the distributor and it creates a very similar click.

Engine Running Tick Distributor Video

I've got to admit, that does sound a lot like a sticky lifter to me.

Can only see one video playing the distributor being tweaked. Worth posting a longer video with the engine running and being reved a bit.

I'd have said lifter bled down but if you've been driving a lot then it shouldn't be doing it, unless parked for a while.
The distributor isn't the cause at least from that noise, that tick is normal as I understand it as all the ones I've wiggled like that all have a noise to them. Maybe you have a weak spark or something to do with the ignition system? 
What's the timing like?
Does the ticking get louder when the engine is up to temp after a drive or is it from cold as well?

Hi all thanks for replying, I’ve been driving her everyday so I don’t think it would be the lifter bleeding. The tick stays at exactly the same noise level no matter the engine temperature, I’ve also swapped out the spark plugs for new ones I had lying around but that hasn’t changed anything. I’ve tested each cylinder removing the ht lead for the two on the left side but the tick still persists even with one or the other cylinder not firing?!

When you say you’ve driven it daily have you done long or short journeys?
David.

Hi, it’s been long journeys about 70 miles a day on average. I wouldn’t be surprised if somethings worn out again the poor girl has be wracking up the mileage!

I had a tick similar to this on my CU. It turned out to be the vacuum retard pulsing. I'm guessing you only have a vacuum advance, but easy to pull off the pipe to check.

Okay thanks for the advice I’ll give that a go!

Any progress?