At 03:35 PM 6/24/2002 -0700, you wrote: >If one has a noisy tappet and one doesn't fix it right away, does one >damage the engine or valve train? I know it needs to be fixed but if it >isn't hurting anything I would like to put it off for a while. Ken, I have never had a car with this problem. However, the engineering (and possibly common sense) perspective would be the following. There is something going on in there that was not supposed to happen. The valvetrain was not designed to operate like that. There is an impact in there (cam-lifter, lifter pushrod?) that should not be happening. Its hard to tell exactly how fast you are wearing valvetrain parts, but why risk more expensive repairs? If you can't fix it now, park the car till you can. However, others with more practical experience with this particular problem might advise you better... D^2