CarbonHan

I started her up this morning and i was greeted by this awful loud tapping noise. The noise was NOT present last night when i parked in the garage. If i rev the engine a bit the sound follows rpms.

What say you gentlemen? Do i have the dreaded camshaft adjuster failure noise?
Could i drive the car in this condition or should i flat bed it to my indy?
I have USAA extended warranty.. they should cover this right?

Enigma94

How long did the sound persist after you started it??

starbrite

No, not camshaft. Definitely valve tappets. See my post in this thread with attached DTB : https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ter-noise.html

Also, give a listen here : http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w211...ine-noise.html

CarbonHan

The sound never went away and the car was on for about 2 minutes before I drove it back into the garage and turned it off.

CarbonHan

When I revved my engine it sounded just like the c63 in the video you referenced in benzworld.

Should i be taking my car to the dealer or my indy for this job?

Mr.F

I had this noise and checked the oil level after my drive home from work, and found it was low. I topped it off to the top mark (half a quart) and the noise has not returned. Have you checked oil level?

I wonder if tappets still need to be replaced if correcting the oil level eliminates the noise.

Enigma94

If the noise persists past warm up you definitely need to have it checked out.

CarbonHan

I did an oil change less than a week ago. i'll check the oil level again just in case.



I haven't driven the car in the past 2 days since i heard the noise... Do you think its safe to drive the car around?

kponti

Sounds like my car did when my double pulley bearing was starting to go out. But then again I have a E55. Check your pulleys in the front of the car, and check your oil. Wont hurt

starbrite

The only driving I would be doing is to your indy or MB dealer.

qwe4565

check your supercharger bearing. Mine sounded just like that

CarbonHan

my preferred indy is about 40 miles away in stop and go traffic on the 405..risk it? lol i also have a friend whos a tech at mb of calabasas and i see him working on the m156 all the time on his instagram so i guess i can take it there.. but its about 15 miles away.

Enigma94

Definitely check the oil before you star the car. If it looks good I'd start the car and let it idle to running temp and see if it goes away. The reason I say this, my car had the same sound and after driving it the sound went away. It's a bit loud when it's cold then after warming up it goes away. I mentioned this to the dealer when I took the car in and they said if it doesn't persist for more than 10min you shouldn't worry. He also said that since I still have 3 years left on my warranty and to keep an eye on it.

emoving

Supercharger bearing!!! LOL

CarbonHan

hahaha honest mistake im sure

CarbonHan

So i started her up again for the first time in 2 days and the tapping noise was still there. I checked the oil levels before starting her up and it was plenty of oil.

I took her for a very careful drive around my neighborhood til i hit 80C and i noticed that the tapping noise was almost gone. I could still hear the tapping sound when giving it some gas from a complete stop. I parked my car in the garage and let it idle for a bit and even revved it up to about 3.5RPMS and it sounded "normal".

WTF? Do i still bring it in to the dealer/indy and try and make a claim or am i going to be turned down because the sound sort of went away? Man, what a headache lol

e500slr

...you sure it's not the turbo bearing on "yours"

Enigma94

This is what my car did. Like I said, the dealer said that if the noise didn't persist after it running more than 10min then to not worry too much. From all my reading it's somewhat normal for the 156 to be loud at start up because of the design of the motor and the oil draining after sitting for a period of time. I would still take the car in and tell them to check the cams for scoring. If they say it's fine then at least you have a record of trying to fix this issue early on if you actually run into the cams needing to be replaced later on if it gets worse.

CarbonHan

I have a lot of videos with the sound.. do you think they would take that as proof?

Enigma94

If they can't replicate it there it won't matter. The vids might help but if they can't hear it for themselves then they won't do anything about it.

CarbonHan

If i bring it to my indy would the outcome be any different? According to USAA they said i can bring my car to any authorized shop to get the work done..

Enigma94

I'd guess the Indy would be a little more open to looking at the vids, it's honestly not a hard troubleshoot in the grand scheme of things. Pull the valve covers off and check the cam lobes for premature wear. If there is signs of the wear then you have the notorious 156 issue and the cams and tappets will need to be replaced with the revised versions.

sbaer

I have a ML63 2009 and the same noise. Well camshaft adjusters and valve tappets sound similar on a video anyway.
So I went to the dealer today and after an hour they confirmed that I have the issue. The grounded the vehicle on the spot and ordered 4 camshaft adjusters. We shall see if that is all or if they find more parts to be replaced (tappets) once they remove the valve cover. In my case the CPO covers it.

sbaer

Previous owner was affected by head bolt issue and bolts were replaced.
15k miles later at 60k I picked up the vehicle and at 61k the camshaft noise started to become very loud.
They replaced camshafts, adjusters and lifters and start to finish took 3 days.
I cannot complain about the service. Do I wish the engine would not have needed any repairs - yes but at least now all the known quirks have been addressed.