Hi,

Having just bougth a 1990 E30 318i at 105k with the M40 engine

First job was to change the oil.

There then appeared a fairly loud tic tic tic  from the cam area that
wasnt there before.

This noise is worse when cold, becoming only intermittent and not
nearly as loud when the engine warms up.

A friend told me it was probably a sticky valve lifter, [it is only
one or two, not the whole lot] and as I changed the oil all the gunk
that was keeping it quiet was now flushed out by the clean oil.

Question is, am I damaging it by driving with this fault or is it one
of those things that are annoying but do little damage?

I intend to sort it soon but neeed to keep commuting 300 miles a week
[mostly motorway] until I fix it.

Any advise appreciated,

Cheers

Andy

andy at palm hyphen mail dot fsnet dot co dot uk