Hi, when my Outback (2.5 liter) engine is cold I get a "clacking" noise until it warms up. It is louder and more noticeable as you put a load on the engine.It sort of sounds like one of the old VW's. My car only has 25,000 miles on it. Now that the weather is getting colder it is more pronounced. Is this what some have said is the "normal" valve train noise? THANKS!

It sounds more to me like piston slap. Search these forums for that term, that should educate you. It's not as bad as it sounds...

Next time you're at the dealership, ask them to check it out. If possible, leave it overnight outside when the weather is cold and ask the service manager to personally start it up in the AM and listen to it, just to make sure its "nothing you need to be concerned about". They may tell you it's a known issue and SOA says it causes no damage whatsoever. That may be true, but at least you'll be on record as far as a future issue. It could get worst, making even more noise and for a longer period after warm-up. At that point you'd have something on record from this time, which could help your case later. My personal feeling is that a dealer can only do this service a certain number of times before SOA won't reimburse them anymore, so they may not be ready to correct it unless it's clearly an extreme case.

I had a similar noise on my 2002 outback. It was loudest around the top, right, front of the engine (driver's side). I recorded the noise and took it to the dealer along with a description. They listened to it and decided to keep the car to check it out. They ended up replacing the timing belt tensioner and the noise went away. It is a known issue.