Any ideas what this could be?

Where is this knocking sound coming from? Hopefully not the engine!
-Jalal

Or do you mean tapping sound from your valves?

It's a knocking sound. I believe it's coming from near the acc. belts. It goes away after a few minutes. I've searched and found explainations like timing giude/tesioner, , low idle, low oil level, oil filter and the car does this if sitting for awhile. I didn't drive my car all last week, drove it to work ok on Monday, then Tuesday morning the sound started.

timing chain problem, thats how it starts.. get it fixed asap before it gets worse like mine, i gotta go in on thursday to fix mine up... tensionor/guides...

My knocking sound on start up was from the lifters being oil starved on start up. I put in, thicker, 15W Mobil One and haven't heard the sound again. Plus the 15W Mobil 1 is good for someone that abuses the hell out of an engine like I do.

Life begins with a VQ at 6000 rpm...live life daily.

Any chance this is caused by the oil filter having a poor seal inside allowing all the oil to bleed back into the engine after it is shut off? Does the tapping sound like lifters, does it actually last for minutes or seconds?

I drove it today without any sound. If it is the timing chain or tensioner, will the knocking sound be constant or intermittent?

in the beginning it should usally sound for a few seconds at least then it will go away.. after a while it should be constant(like mine)

u have an s-14? pics anywhere? i have a '95 se autotragic still love it tho... im trying to sell it. sorry for going off topic guys

I'm having the same problem.
What do lifters sound like and how long does the knocking last?
What happens if you let the tensioner issue go for a while?

**OFF TOPIC**

Ya, had a 96 manual. Loved it to death. Handling was amazing compared to the Maxima...but I'm working on that. I really want to get a '95-'95 and drop the sr20det in it. Nothing like irs/rwd...but the Max definitely has more power...just gotta work on the suspension.

it gets worse and worse and if you leave it long enough I believe the chain can pop :P