5cyl lifter tap

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

  The staff at Audi dealerships back in the middle 80'swere asking that 
same question about the brand new 5-cylinder 10 valve Audi engines that 
were being delivered in truck load after truckload of new cars.

I was working at such a dealership, and can testify that when the new 5 
cylinder engines were started they usually had such noisy lifters that we 
all felt a little embarrassed to show them to customers. They sounded like 
they were badly out of adjustment. Lots of people bought them anyhow, and 
most of them did quiet down after they warmed up.   As the cars aged, I 
think they usually quieted down a little bit more, and the proper drainback 
valve in the oil filter helped considerably on most cars.

I remember asking the service department if anything could be done to quiet 
them down. They replied that the engines were designed that way. On the 
4kq, part of the noise was from the auxiliary vacuum pump that ran the 
brake booster. You can read about it in the archives. Some people took the 
drive rod out of the pump and effectively did away with the pump and the noise.

Just a bit of history............

Doyt Echelberger
The original 5-cylinder in my 87 5ktq at over 300k miles is remarkably 
quiet on startup, compared to when it was new.