2002 silverado v6 light tapping when starting,sounds like a lifter.

Nov 13, 2003 4 Replies

some times when the truck sits all day. it will make a light tapping wen i start it,, then it fades out... lately it last longer... some times 10 minutes,,, but when i drive it,,, it has a loss of power... i wait for it to stop tapping before i drive,,, 2 dealers tell me that it will not hurt anything also that it cannot be fixed.. any one else have it with there 99-02 v6 or v8....tanks engine nut



From your exact description it seems it's one or more lifters pumping back up, especially since it goes away; but, maybe one or more lifters are actually bad.

After reading posts on many forums about the various tapping noises this is one I have summarized it:

-Tapping at startup ONLY (aka cold start knock, CSK - ie, it goes away after a while) - Lifter pump-up or carbon build-up

-Tapping all the time - carbon build-up, oil pump o-ring (there's a TSB on this), or piston slap

-Tapping (pinging) under heavy acceleration - carbon build-up, too low octane gas

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