Questions and Answers

Legacy Ticking And Rattling Q. Hi Vince, I've enjoyed reading your column and I was hoping you can give me your take on two issues about my 2002 Subaru Legacy L wagon.

1) After a cold start, I can hear a slight ticking noise coming from the engine only when I accelerate. If I'm off the gas or using cruise control, no noise. The noise goes away after a while, sooner in the summer, later in the winter.

Every dealer mechanic I spoke to said that it's valve lifter related and I can leave it alone. Being cynical, I think they're waiting for the warranty to run out. Who's right?

2) When I come to a stop, with the A/C on, I can sometimes hear a slight rattle that sounds like it's coming from under the dash. It doesn't always happen and I was by another Subaru owner that it's due to the secondary A/C fan. What is the root cause and how serious is it?

Thanks for your help! Appreciate it.
Jim

A. 1) Since I can't actually hear the noise or the severity of the noise, it will be hard for me to offer an opinion. However, I would tend to agree with the dealer when they say it's a valve lifter noise. If it is really light and goes away when you accelerate slightly, then I would tend not to worry about it.

One thing you have to be sure of is that you are not mistaking the injector clicking for valve noise. That is easy to do. Audible injector clicking is normal.

2) Secondary A/C fan? Last time I looked there was only one blower motor fan under the dash of that car. There are, however, two cooling fans under the hood, one for engine cooling and one for A/C.

Dashboard rattles drive me nuts. They can be anything, a connector tapping against a dash panel, two panels rubbing together, anything. It just takes time to locate and isolate it.