On the 19th of August Sue and I headed south to go see my now 2012 Plus 4 sport in red with tan interior, only 4700 miles and spent the last 5 years or so in storage. It was in pretty good shape, the inevitable marks from long term storage, had some paint at the front at some point. It had an excellent service record prior to going into storage but hadn't been serviced since 2019.......having said that at 3500 miles. Clearly the oil and filter had been changed more recently, checked the MOT history and that was completely clear no fails or advisories at any point. It needless to say hasn't been used so the engine on start up was a little tappetty, but that still persisted ….
The first thing I did was book it in for a full service with Life's, changed and greased everything, car felt much better for it. Whilst the tappets had quietened down some what, still aware of them. We decided to leave them for now and see if use would quieten them down, it has helped but not enough so its something I'm going to get them adjusted during the winter.
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Mine has been quite tappety when cold since new. It’s now done 53k miles like that and has not got any better or worse. It is quite quiet when warmed up. I took it back to the factory for its first service back in 2011 but Mike Baldwin insisted that it was “normal”. I wasn’t convinced but since took it to a main dealer and they said the same. I am still not convinced!
It could of course be noisy flaps on the inlet manifold instead, but I cannot really pinpoint it.
However, to adjust the tappets will mean the camshaft coming out which is probably why I have lived with it. If you do actually get them adjusted, I would be pleased to hear how it went.
Thanks.
