HalNineThousand

Approximately 130,000 miles on the car. How quickly does piston slap go away? I was driving for up to 10 minutes and still hearing it.

So about how much is it to replace the timing belt on this car? I'm looking at several cars so if this one is a "finalist," it'll definitely get a pre-purchase inspection. (A few years ago I spent a total of $190 on PPIs and it saved me about $5,000. A $90 PPI on a Forester today saved me about $3,000, so I'm a strong believer in getting a PPI!) Remember, there is basically no noise at idle, it only shows up as I accelerate. I should have known to check with a metal rod or pipe, that just slipped by me. If I were at home working on my car (which is an '85!), I would have thought of it, but not on a car lot where I didn't bring tools or anything. Thanks for pointing that out!

Thanks for the reply! What exactly is a piston slap? If that turns out to be the only problem with the car, then I can easily deal with it. I've test driven this car two times, but neither time was it out for more than 10 minutes, so that wasn't long enough to see if it was different when it warmed up. I forgot that the service tech I talked to had asked if it disappeared when the car warmed up. I thought of it as a tick or click, which isn't exact. When you say "pock pock pock," do you mean like the sound of metal tapping or hitting (but not slamming) on metal? That would come close to describing what I heard. Here's to hoping that's all it is!

I'm a complete newbie here and I'm looking at buying a 2002 Outback. The issue that bothers me is that there is a ticking/clicking sound. When it's stopped, it idles fine, but as I accelerate, I hear the sound from about 1,500 to 2,000 RPMs with it either speeding up so it merges with normal engine noise or disappearing (I can't be sure). I talked with a local Subaru service guy who did a pre-purchase inspection for me on a Forester (that had serious problems) and he said that in some older cars that kind of sound can be normal or it could be something bad. I'm looking at several vehicles and don't want to just keep spending money on a lot of p-p inspections, so I thought I'd ask if anyone here has comments on this noise. It just seems wrong to me that cars are expected to make ticking sounds like this, but I could see how it could happen. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Of course I'll get a PPI, but I'm trying to eliminate any bad cars first so I'm only getting one or two more of those (they add up in price!) if possible. Thanks for any help on this!