97 escort motor noise

[97wagonlx]

ok so tonight this car starts making a light knocking at idle that sounds to me like lower end noise the car has 71k miles on it still drives fine no loss of power just has a light knok to it at idle is when you here it the most when your driving you cant really hear it mostly if you give it a light rev while your in park when it settles back down to idle you can hear it pretty bad and im kind of confused and pissed as i have only had this car for one week so right about now im thinking that this car was a pretty bad purchase so any help from you guys as to suggestions would be greatly appreciated because im far from a rich guy that can keep buying cars so thanks in advance

[Davescort97]

Could be a main or rod bearing. Can you feel the knock and not just hear it. If that is the case it doesn't sound good. It could just be a lifter that's not pumping up. That's a minor problem. You can tell by putting some oil thickener in your oil like STP. If the knock gets quieter you have a bad bearing. If you drive it for a while real nice and easy it might go away. You won't hurt it anymore than it is now by driving it. It's not a big thing to replace a bearing. Drop the oil pan and it's right there. Shouldn't be too expensive. I ran the you- know- what out of my 97 to get this guy off my back bumper and the engine ran rougher than a corn cob for a while. Went away after a while though. Drive it real easy and don't put too much of a load on it and it may work itself out.