I have a slight tapping noise. I can not hear it from under the hood. I can only hear it when I'm in the car with all of the windows up and radio off. I'm thinking maybe a valve tap but I have also read that the cam chain tensioner makes and tapping/clicking noise when going bad. Any thoughts on where to begin with this?

 

We're going to need more information on this. Which engine? Does the sound change with engine speed? When you say you can hear it with the windows up and radio off, is this with the car still or moving? If you're sitting inside of the car and you hear it, does it seem to be up high, down low, front, back, etc.?

When the cam chain tensioners fail, they can make a rattle/tapping noise, but this should be audible from under the hood.

 

It's a 1.8t atw. I hear it at idle but once the engine speed is above 2000 rpm the noise of the engine, etc drown it out. It does raise with engine speed. The sound is definitley coming from the engine bay and seems to be coming from the passenger side but it is hard to tell. From what I can tell according to some videos I found, it's not the cct. I plan on pulling my valve cover tomorrow to see if anything looks out of order. I'm not really sure of what to be looking for though.

 

Also, I had an oil pressure problem about 4 months ago and I did drive the car for maybe a week or so before I realized what the problem was (my instrument cluster LCD does not work). But that was about 4 months ago and it ran normal since I changed the oil pump so I did not think it was related. I also have a turbo on it's way out. It's eating about 1 and a half qts of oil every oil change or so. So since I'm basically sucking in oil I thought maybe dirty valves are causing this tap. I have put some "upper cylinder lubricant/injector cleaner" in and have seafomed through a vacuum line and the tap seems not be as loud as before. I'm definitely thinking valve tap but I'm unsure of where to go with that at this point. Other than rebuilding the head...

 

If you ran it with low oil pressure any number of things could be bad. When you pull the valve cover, you may want to pull a couple of the cam caps to inspect the cam journals.