So I'm dealing with a ticking/rattling noise that seems to be coming from my leftside (when sitting) top front end. The noise only occurs occasionally while idling or at low RPM. Once I get up to speed the noise is gone. How serious of an issue is this?? My daily commute is around 16mi and I've been out about 3 times since I noticed the noise... praying I'm not doing any further damage or about to blow a piston...
To give you some background info, I recently replaced the oil pump sensor as I had a MAJOR engine oil leak. Prior to replacing the pump sensor, I was out on a 20+ mile ride and the leak was so bad I probably came close to riding on a bone dry engine. With the new pump sensor + full oil change, I've had 0 leaks and she's been running amazing. Like I mentioned, it's only been recent that the rattle/ticking noise has shown up. I can best describe the sound as bits of metal rattling around in my engine - which makes me think when out on that ride with little to no engine oil, my piston was rubbing up against the cylinder - no lube - serious friction. However, when I did my oil change I didn't see too much metal residue in the old oil. HELP. I'll try to post a vid of the sound soon, but the noise is pretty sporadic so it's hard to catch when it happens.
QUICK UPDATE - after today's ride I had a serious amount of white smoke billowing out of my breather tube and the engine seemed a little hotter than normal. Any correlation w/ the rattling/ticking noise? I put 3.2 qts (per the manual) of new oil in at my last oil change, so I'm thinking it's just excess engine oil?
