Subaru Diesel making a hell of a clatter under 2,000rpm

[Sc0tchland]

Car: Subaru Impreza Diesel 2009

Appreciate the audio isn't the best, but the car has started to make a hell of a racket at just under 2,000 when the turbo kits in.

From around 5 seconds on this audio clip is the noise the engine makes under slight load..
Link to Audio - https://drive.google.com/file/d/126JqlMlrF8Zh-u27l...

Does anyone have any suggestions about where I should start?
Car runs completely fine, around 49mpg on a decent run, accelerates OK, just sounds like a bag of nails...

[vxr2010]

sorry to be a doom and gloom i’m sure you are aware there were issues with the diesel engines , i don’t know if it’s that ? is it worth a camera check of the bores etc ? is oil fresh and up to its mark ? seems strange it improves after it’s lower rev rattle , i could not open the clip , does it sound more top or bottom end ?

[Sc0tchland]

vxr2010 said:

sorry to be a doom and gloom i’m sure you are aware there were issues with the diesel engines , i don’t know if it’s that ? is it worth a camera check of the bores etc ? is oil fresh and up to its mark ? seems strange it improves after it’s lower rev rattle , i could not open the clip , does it sound more top or bottom end ?

Yeah I know there was some issues with the Diesel engines, so I'm hoping it's not that...
Oil isn't fresh, so I'm going to start with oil filter and a oil change, someone suggested it could be the hydraulic lifters and old duff oil?
It seems that once the engine is warmed up or you rev it above say 2k RPM, then it seems to go away. I was driving it around earlier once the engine was warm and forgot there was a problem with it..

I don't know if it was more top or bottom end unfortunately.. It did sound like someone was playing a metal tambourine..

[texaxile]

Might be worth asking in the "engines and drivetrain" section, there are some very clever guys there like Stevieturbo et al.

Sounds to me like a top end / cam rattle, but I'm no expert.