Ticking noise, oil light, engine managment light help!!

[core2lee]

Hi everyone. Right,got a 1996 P reg Corsa B Merrit, its done around 120,000 miles. Its been my dad's car for work then gave it me when i passed my test last year... anyways. The car sounds fine when you start the engine but all the time we have owned the car the engine managment light has randomly popped up when driving and stays on until the engine is turned off, but this has never made any differance to anything and has passed MOTs without a problem. Recently the oil light has been flicking on, at first it was if you did a sharp right turn lol, but now it flashes on when you brake, turn (basically if the car goes on any kind of slant) and also has started making a ticking noise, at first it did it if you gave the car some stick, but now just a 20min journy and it will start to do it. It seems to me that it started to do it more after i changed the radiator because the old one corroded, but i never let the car go above about 95 degrees, the car runs below 90 most of the time so is definitly keeping good running temps.

Any help is appreciated, Thanks

Just to add i gave the car had a full oil change and oil filter at the beggining of the year just after its MOT.

[PRICER]

first check that their is actual oil in the car, because we had the same problem with my sisters car when you went round bends, and that was due to lack of oil, and the tapping noise that sounds like the tappets in the cylinder head running dry as i have that problem on my vw caddy, but then when you floor it the tapping disapears because the oils been pumped round. so first make sure you have some oil in the car

[core2lee]

Yes there is oil in the car, but i suppose it cant hurt to check again, i last checked it about a week ago. It is exactly that when you put your foot to the floor and the engine revs higher the tapping noise starts to dissapier, if the engine goes to about 4,500 RPM it stops completly. I think it is the tappets because its a simalar noise to what the engine makes when it is freezing cold and you first start it but not as loud as that.

[PRICER]

yeaa, what i did to my sisters car that had done high mileage is i took the cylinder head off and stripped it down completely and re-lapped in the valves and made sure that all the oil ways were clear, and put new valve seals in, and the amount of dirt that i found sitting on the head was unbelievable!! their was like 5mm of muck in some places! maybe you could do with giving yours a clean out, also doing this made the car go a hell of alot better, made more power and torque than it did before to.

[Jimi137]

yeh i agree here it sounds like the tappets - mine used 2 do it after a bit of heavy driving. mine got quite rattly tho and i took it 2 hiq where they sed its nothing 2 serious and u got a lot of miles left b4 they break completely. if ur mechanically minded stripping the engine is a good idea but if not it shouldn't be 2 much of a problem

and yup as sed the oil sounds like its a bit low and could do with a little top up

and em light could be a few things tho? does it seem 2 loose a bit of power when it comes on or does it just behave like normal?

[core2lee]

Thankyou for all your help people, at least my minds at rest and 'this' or 'that' is nakered... scrap it lol. The car doesn't loose power when the engine managment light comes on, and neither does it loose power when it starts to make the ticking noise. Think i might go with your advice 'pricer' and strip the cylinder head, re-lap it and clean it all up, even if it makes no differance it certainly wont do nay harm.

[dandadan]

If I was you mate, before you start stripping the engine down I would change the oil and oil filter and also get some TCP (i think thats what its called) this should help the ticking noise disapear.

I had a ticking noise on the corsa 2 years ago, like you say it went when giving it some, then over the space of a year or so it prevented a miss fire and turned out that a cam lobe had worn down, chewing a rocker. I had to replace the cam and all the rockers plus give it a thorough clean to remove all the chewed up metal. You might wanna check yours and see how it is lol.

Can I also clarify there is no such thing as tappets lol