Iam looking to buy a 2004 4.4 petrol/lpg around 70k miles which I went to see the other day.

The engine seemed nice and smooth as you would expect but did have a light tapping noise on tickover which gradually got less when revved. Iam thinking it sounded a bit like the timing chain and upon removal of the oil filler cap I could slightly move the links on the chain from side to side and wondered if this is normal on these engines having had no experience with them?

It was a bit oily underneath across chassis and around gearbox but having removed most of it with a cloth and taking it for a long drive it didnt reappear so possibly an old oil leak that wasnt cleaned up properly.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Noisy engine probably due to the Vanos (do a search on the forum, there's loads of info on it). Mine's exactly the same, nothing to worry about. But it is accentuated by the lpg injectors too, which makes it sound worse!

Oily chassis could mean leaking valve cover gaskets. Bitch of a job to do yourself (I've just done mine!) so if it is that and you don't fancy doing it yourself, budget £300-£400 to have a mechanic do it for you. Any history/receipts to tell whether the gaskets have been changed? Cheers

Greg

Go ahead punk, make my day........

Previous vehicles:-
Far too many to list (in excess of 45!)

Thanks mate thats a bit of a relief as Ive sort of erm bought it today:) It didnt sound that bad tbh and hopefully the oil was just a gasket or a sloppy oil change as it has just been serviced. Will no doubt find out when I get it home over the next few days so will report back when I finish playing with it

Oh, you'll find plenty of things to play with!

Just hope you don't have as many problems as I've had with mine!  Cheers

Greg

Go ahead punk, make my day........

Previous vehicles:-
Far too many to list (in excess of 45!)