Hi there,im a newbie here and im not greatly mechanically minded but hear me out,and please possibly give me some advice so i can get it sorted,would greatly appreciate it.

I bought a 2003 Honda Civic 1.6 VTEC INSPIRE S,about 3 months ago from a gkgroup dealership which had done 50k,it had its last service done at 38k,so i politely asked them to throw in a full service,which rapidfit provided,turns out they only changed the oil.Very strange how It was ready to pick it up a day later,considering the rapid fit department had alot of repairs to get through.Anyways since i got it,it has been making a rattling noise which sounds like its coming from the engine when its heated up.It is not present atall when cold or getting to normal temp.It is especially apparant between 2500-3000 revs.I took it to the honda dealership and asked them wat it was,they said that the tappets were needing set and to put in new spark plugs,so i got a trustworthy garage to do this for me rather than the butcher prices at the main dealership.but IT STILL MAKES THE NOISE,which makes me think the tappets werent needing set atall.Please correct me if i am wrong,are the tappets needing set and the valve clearances part of the same procedure?Because I am starting to think that the valve clearances maybe need set and adjusted accordingly,as it does say in the service schedule it has to be done or checked every 25k,and with the rapid fit not performing this procededure then maybe it will do the trick.

By looking at the haynes manual,it looks to be a simple procedure,taking up to an hour maybe,my engine is a single cam one if thats any help.

Thanks in advance for any advice,hope to get an answer soon.

if it's really noisy it could be tappets or a problematic bearing.

I know a good scrap dealer that would take it off yer hands............... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/s12.gif)