Help Please with Ticking Sound on my 430

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is wrong with my car. Recently only on cold starting I've been hearing a ticking sound coming from my engine that is Rev dependent. It gets quieter as the car warms up and is completely gone by about 30sec. Then I don't hear it anymore unless I restart the car from cold (i.e. several hours of rest). If the engine is still warm and I restart it then there is no ticking sound. It sounds like a sticky valve lifter but I've read of some people saying they heard ticking sounds prior to their header failing!

Background: my car is a 2005 and had the original headers changed in 2009 under warranty (on the service record it reads "check engine light on...exhaust manifold re and re or replace of both"). I'm not sure if the original failed as I am the second owner but I do have the service record showing the replacement. Unfortunately, it doesn't say whether it was changed to a mk2 header, although in 2009 I suspect it will be mk2. Over the last year I've also been noticing some white powder in my engine bay and a high pitched rattling noise at about 3k rpm, especially in 3rd gear. I recently had my car serviced at my local dealership for harsh vibrations and a CEL warning and my dealer told me one of the cylinders were misfiring and they changed the spark plugs and an intake manifold gasket (they did a smoke test after changing the plugs and found the gasket leak leading them to change the gasket). This was about 1.5 months ago and the car ran perfectly. I asked them about the rattling noise on acceleration and they told me it was my muffler (the silencer can was moving freely side to side) and I had fixed by tack welding the muffler so it didn't move anymore. They also told me that the white powder in my engine bay was from this muffler moving around and true enough when I banged on the silencer (prior to tack welding and with it out of the car) white powder came out of it. It is about 4-5 weeks after this that I started noticing the ticking sound on cold start, which happens consistently on cold starts.

Anybody have this happen to them? Does anybody have any ideas what this is? I have a reputable indie shop that I get most of my maintenance stuff done but the last servicing (plugs and gasket) was done at the dealership as my indie didn't have an SD3 scanner to read the CEL error codes. Should I take it to my dealer or indie? Any way this is related to work recently done at my dealer?

Hope it isn't anything serious. Thanks all for your input.

JP

 

On first cold start ticking is quite loud and then goes away after about 30 sec. I'll try getting it checked ASAP but I hope it isn't the headers again.

 

Does anybody know if the replacement manifolds will still be covered if they were replaced by my dealer in 2009? I know the original manifolds are covered for 8 years but what about the replacement ones? I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow but just wondering if anybody has had experience with the failing of a second manifold.

 

Im hoping for this to be a valve noise but am preparing for manifold issue. Oil was just changed 2.5 months ago and recently checked.

 

Im hoping for this to be a valve noise but am preparing for manifold issue. Oil was just changed 2.5 months ago and recently checked.

 

my car is going to my dealer tomorrow and spending the night there for them to try and figure out the problem. I'll have a better idea on Wednesday but I've already ordered a set of capristo brackets and will likely order either fabspeed or capristo headers...even if it doesn't end up being the headers I just don't want to have this worry again! Plus, it'll be fun changing out my manifolds...I think

Thanks all for your input. I'll keep this post updated.

 

Yes, I live in Vancouver, BC. From what I've read CEL is a random issue that cannot be predicted and the fabspeed headers now ship with O2 sensors. Good point about emissions testing, though...I'll have to look into that...anybody else here have experience with this?