Mind you I’ve been really babying this thing since I’m not sure if the previous owner has done the timing belt yet (waiting on a response from them through my dealer contacting them. I’m close to try and find them on facebook or something). I had my fun at first but now I just cruise it around town.

 

i’m honest, my car has 100 k km and has had a lot of noises but no one like this. You should isolate the area where is coming from .
Try to hear if it is coming from the motor or from other area in the rear .
And I think that any car service can help you investigating on it.
In any case I would make a call to the seller ….. in order to say that could be a possible issue .

If it is something rattling out of the motor nothing to be worried about….. if it is coming from inside the motor……mmmmmm
Take care in case is something related to the timing belt or the secondary belt for the accessories.
Especially if no maintenance was done in many years

 

Once it starts doing it again, I’ll immediately park it and pop the trunk and listen carefully. It hasn’t been doing it since then which relieves me, but doesn’t mean I’m in the clear. I’m just hoping it’s not the timing belt starting to fail. I’m going to look for the previous seller online and see if I can contact him since the dealership I bought it from never got back to me when I asked if the belt and bolt tightening was done.

 

Honestly, that’s a horrible noise and I wouldn’t drive it until you can work out what it is.

I’d start by taking the timing cover off and seeing if the timing belt or accessory belt has frayed and slapping around..

then I’d check all the spark plugs and make sure they are intact

If you can get a two-way articulating borescope in the spark plug holes you can check the top of the pistons, piston walls and turn the camera back on itself to check the valves to makes sure there is no piston clash or you haven’t chipped or broken a ring. If you don’t have a borescope then maybe do a compression check.

if that’s all good then I’d pull the cam cover off and check there are no broken valve springs or unusual wear on the cams.

if all those things are okay then maybe it could be a bad release bearing on the clutch? In which case it’s gearbox out..

 

It only makes the noise here and there, that’s what worries me. For the past day it hasn’t made it again. I’m taking it easy, keeping it around 4k and below, slow accelerations and light shifting. I’m going to be getting the timing belt done in a month so I hope it doesn’t end up being that and the belt breaks in that time. Unfortunately I have no choice but to drive it since I don’t have another vehicle.

But when you say timing cover, would I have to disassemble part of the engine for that? I can do diagnostic work and anything that can temporarily help, but anything beyond that is out of my ability.

 

Personally I would park the car at a service centre and find alternate transport until you know what this is. It could be a $1k fix now vs a $10k fix if left too long - who knows?

Fingers crossed it is something simple.

"Babying it" is unlikely to prevent further damage if this is a damaging issue. I mean, 3500 rpm vs 6000 ... 🤷‍♂️

But if you want to start some diags yourself, some very basic things to check.

1. Is it tapping only when the vehicle is moving , or also when stationary? If stationary you could get a cheapie engine stethoscope and try to locate the area.

2. Is the tapping related to engine RPM? Does the tapping go faster or slower as RPMs goes up/down?

3. Or is the tapping related to vehicle speed? Does the tapping do faster or slower as vehicle speed increases / decreases?

4. Does the rate or sound of tapping seem dependent on what gear you are in?

I assume you've checked the oil level?

 

Here’s the thing, it hasn’t done the noise since I took that video. It had a consistent tapping noise that seemed to increase with revs. But I don’t know for sure since when I heard it I kept it at my job and didn’t continue driving it, I only had it up to 2.5k rpm when I heard that noise. Oil is good, surprisingly still looks new even after 2400 miles

 

I would avoid to make more issue driving it …..
If it is something like t8ming belt the noise it is more easy to hear at low rpm……

And honestly as i said above this not seems one of the typical rattle and noises the 4C share with all of us…

It's a noise that repeats itself at the same time interval and therefore it seems to have to do with something that moves or rotates for what i hear.

tale in account what is suggested by Karl……
and contact the seller ( if you have any warranty ) or cross your fingers if you haven’t ……

 

I don’t have any other form of transportation, even buses don’t go through my route for my job. I’ll have to take the gamble but I’m sure the car will hang in there I’m confident in that. It hasn’t done the noise since that video (I think a couple days now)

 

Also, if I understand correctly the car is 10 years old and 82k MILES on it and no indication that timing belt was ever replaced?
If correct, this is really really bad imo and I would be reluctant to even start the car let alone drive it until belt is done. 😬 Sorry if I'm sounding alarmist but imo you are playing with fire driving that car before the belt is done if it has not been done at least 1x already in the past. If the belt goes say goodbye to your engine's top-end and hello to a massive repair (or replace) bill.

I had timing fail on a Subaru boxer engine some years ago (also an interference engine like the 4C's) - the results were not pretty at all. The repair was prob around $10k in today's $ value.

 

It definitely has, but my concern is WHEN it was done. Because what if it was done at 40k or 50k miles? It’s at 83k now, and that’s a long time since than. Maybe even a few years. Yes im nervous, but I trust this car will holdout for me until I get the service done.

 

finger cross for you and your beauty Rico!
in the meantime the whole papers you received from the seller try to check the amount of miles they made the belt change or any of the services ( probably you already did it)
Take in account that often the belt it is not damaged because the ne of miles done but for the time passed between changes…..due to material characteristics aging

 

@RICO4C , If you can’t afford a belt job how will you cope with needing a new engine? This engine is an interference one and a belt snap has a good chance of destroying it. Just giving the heads up on the consequences.

 

Just for the moment I can’t. I have other things in my life I need to pay for (end of my apartment lease). I already scheduled it to be done in two weeks from now though so I’m all good. If I needed to get an engine job done, at most the car would sit for a couple months.

 

@RICO4C , If you can’t afford a belt job how will you cope with needing a new engine? This engine is an interference one and a belt snap has a good chance of destroying it. Just giving the heads up on the consequences.

I don’t have any other form of transportation, even buses don’t go through my route for my job. I’ll have to take the gamble but I’m sure the car will hang in there I’m confident in that. It hasn’t done the noise since that video (I think a couple days now)

I'm no financial expert, but relying on a 10+ year old Italian sports car as your only transportation is wild. When something goes wrong, you better hope it’s just the battery—because repairs can and will get expensive fast. The cost of entry might be cheap, but the upkeep definitely isn’t. Take it from a E60 M5 owner who threw a rod and wished it was only a dead battery.

 

Yeah of course, but that’s what I plan on doing. If something goes wrong, my Alfa dealer will give me a courtesy car in the meantime of being fixed. I didn’t buy this car to expect it to be a Toyota, so I’m well aware that at times it may give me trouble. I’ve had much more unreliable cars in the past so breaking down and having to fork over money isn’t new to me. I make a good amount of money so I’m not too concerned with cost of repairs either.

 

I'm not sure about the mileage, but it sounds like the tappets need an adjustment.

 

I’ll look into that 👍🏽

 

@RICO4C I would check the undertrays. Lay on the ground and tap around the under trays

They can make some odd noises if you have a lose screw where the two back ones meet.

 

How can make a redundant noise like the one in the video an undertray with a car that is not moving !? 🤨