Rattle on start up!!!

[drummerboy]

4.6is...60.000miles

Gang

when starting up from cold i get a rattling from the engine for a few seconds then it slowely quitens down...the longer i leave it the more rattle...i left it over the weekend and came to start it yeaserday and it was like a tank...only seeming to fire on 4/5 cylinders as if the valves were shut!!!! after 30/40 seconds it started to clear and within a min was sweet as a nut...

no lack of power no black smoke just a rattle on cold start..

i have had all sorts of guesses from timing chain tensioner...timing chain...vanos...etc etc..

But...one guy on a US forum tells me that indys sometimes use cheap oil filters that dont have a return valve on them meaning the oil emptys from the filter and drains everything down...so when you start after a few hours its killing itself tryin to first fill the oil filter before it showers the engine with oil...

what do you reckon??? i have recently bought the car and noticed the recent last service was an unknown garage....

tell me this is correct and i dont need to spend 3k on a new timing chain...lol...

help me ..

[X5Sport]

Oil level OK? Any idea what oil has been used? Could be wrong grade etc. I would not expect a car engine to take 30-40 seconds to get oil flowing properly without major engine damage occurring pretty quickly after that started.

You could try checking/changing both the filter and oil and see if that sorts it. Cheapest fix.......and you'll know both are correct.

After that I'll have to defer to the V8 folks as my Bimmers are all oil burning in-line 6's

[IanP]

If the noise is half engine speed it could be the hydraulic tappets. Mine suffered from that before the tensioner went, I would blame it on cheap oil. They are cheap enough to buy, but not so cheap to replace