Weird sound when right after starting

hello i drive a 96 ford escort lx 1.9L

today while driving, engine light started to flash and then after 20 sec or so it turns solid...i stop the car and turn it back on....i heard "ta ta ta ta ta ta ta" for a while like 10-20 secs then the sound is normal again. it does this everytime i start the car..........

can anyone help me i am afraid my car might die all of a sudden in the middle of the road...thankx alot.

lifters?
check your oil?

need a little more info, i'm a bad guess.

i dont think its oil because if it is, it would have lighted up the oil lamp. i dont konw what info i could give sorry. all i know is the tatatat sound happens everytime i start the car for 10-20 sec then the sound was normal again. and my engine light is on constantly.

cracked piston or ring? Piston slap? lifters pumping up? Whatever it is, the 10-20 second thing bothers me. Usually lifters tick always. Piston slap usually hangs around for at least a couple minutes. A spun bearing would be much more devastating.

Did you check some less obvious things like the belt driven accessories? Its possible that something as innocent as a bent alternator fan, low power steering fluid, or an A/C compressor clutch is causing noises.

cracked piston or ring? Piston slap? lifters pumping up? Whatever it is, the 10-20 second thing bothers me. Usually lifters tick always. Piston slap usually hangs around for at least a couple minutes. A spun bearing would be much more devastating.

Did you check some less obvious things like the belt driven accessories? Its possible that something as innocent as a bent alternator fan, low power steering fluid, or an A/C compressor clutch is causing noises.


I think I was thinking too hard, I thought it might have been a lifter cuz maybe the oil isn't circulating that fast and then after 10 second it gets up there but does it do this sound just on cold starts or hot starts too? I started to think something with ignition but I'd follow curtis and look for something a little less obvious.

oh no .......this happens even happens when its warmed up. as soon as i stop the engine and restart it, it will make that "ta ta ta ta " sound for a about 20 sec then it will sound normal again.....

i was gonna buy a code reader but it will cost me 250 becuase it use OBDII. Anyways, today i noticed that the pinging didnt last as long as yesterday ...today only sound for 10 sec or so after i start the car. But I also heard that when ever i accelerate, i could hear that pinging sound (the weird part is not every time i accelerate i hear that sound). I just want to get all the info i could get before i take it to a shop. thanks

sounds normal to me. some cars do that when you start them i dunno why for sure, its just like a lawn mower when you start it and then its at low throttle and you put it up to high it will make that noise too. i think it has something to do maybe with the fuel delivery system, like maybe its pinging or something till it gets in the groove. my old lebaron did that every time it started and i had over 100 thousand miles on it when i sold it and it was still in great running shape and burned no oil whatsoever. its probably one of those things that you didnt notice before and now that you know its gonna happen you automatically hear it because you are thinking about it.