Hey guys, I bought a '06 323i a few weeks back. Great car, first BMW and I'm loving it!
But every so often and I mean about 5% of the time I start it up, there is a noticeable ticking sound from the engine bay.
Sound clip here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mcc2n97iil3xibs/ticking%20sound.m4a?dl=0 Driving the other day with the windows down, the ticking seemed to speed up with acceleration and my girlfriend was freaking out It appeared again this morning.
I left for work with it ticking, realized I forgot something 2 mins from home and went back. Leaving the car running in the driveway, I got out and noticed the ticking was gone.
Seems almost like once the engine has warmed up it disappears. But...since buying the car, I have instinctively warmed the engine up for at least 5 mins before driving anywhere.
Is this sufficient? I know nothing about engines so looking under the bonnet would be a waste of time for me. So wondering, anyone else had this issue? Something I should be worried about? Should I take it back to the dealer to take a look?
Cheers!