For a few months now, I have noticed that the car makes a chattering/ticking noise on startup. Is it normal? What is it due to? The chattering noise goes away once I engage the transmission in either D or R.
https://anoop.updog.co/IMG_0115.MOV

 

Bring it into the dealership and report back. Maybe bad belt?

 

I can barely hear it but it doesn't sound right. Does it vary with engine RPM? Does the sound return when you take it out of gear and put it back in park or neutral?

Either way, bring it in.

 

Seems to happen only on cold start. I’m at 30% oil life so will have them look at it when I go in for my next service.

 

Car is with the dealer service dept now and they say not able to reproduce.

 

Always make sure you are with the car when they do these types of checks. They can easily say "can't reproduce it". It's better if you are there to point out when you hear it, during their evaluation.

 

Mine lets out a little clatter on cold starts in the morning. It can hardly be heard and it only lasts a second or two.

 

For that to work, it does have to be reproducible but unfortunately it's not. I have not even been able to trace it down to a cold start. I've heard it sometimes when I'm idling at a light after AIS has disengaged.

Dealer is keeping the car for one more day to see if they can find it.

At least, it's probably not something serious.

 

I complained about a slow leak in a tire at my last service ‘unable to reproduce’ was what they said. The tire place found a screw in the tread and charged me $25 to fix it. I guess if the dealer had bothered to actually check it, and if they were competent enough to dismount a tire and fix a flat, it woulda cost me $100.

 

I can't hear anything on that vid. Could this be a timing issue or knock that you're hearing?

 

Did you try turning the volume all the way up? You should hear a ticking noise underneath the ambient noise. Unfortunately I have an older phone and it’s not as good as the newer ones at cutting out the ambient noise.

 

I tried again and I guess I can hear a little bit of a rattle. I'll listen the next time I'm in my car to see if I hear anything similar. Sounds a bit like a tick from a valve to me. Could be a VVT issue or maybe it's completely normal.

 

If it was VVT, would it be intermittent?

 

Again, I'm not an expert but VVT does change based on factors like RPM, engine load, coolant/oil temperature and other factors. So perhaps that would make it "intermittent" depending on those conditions.

I sometimes get the feeling that dealers don't want to admit there's a problem with a new car. It might be worth taking it to a reputable mechanic for a second opinion.

 

They said they adjusted the PCM bracket. Since I picked it up, I haven't experienced the issue.