During acceleration from a stop I can typically hear a very faint and brief chattering noise around 2nd gear. I have a very pronounced valve chatter in my 95 Cherokee and it sounds similar to that but much quieter. Anyone else experience this?

Yeah I've heard a faint chatter a couple times. I've been thinking it was just the quality/blend of the gas as I don't here it all the time. Usually only when the weather gets warm.

i've heard the same thing, only from a stop. usually when i am offroad and i have the window down an my head out looking at a rock i'm going over.

i thought i might just be a crapp-ier fuel thing but it's not very noticable. do yall think it's damaging?

I've only heard it from a stop as well. With the Cherokee it went on like that for years. The dealership told me that was normal for the Cherokee engine. Now the thing has no power. I was hoping to hear if anyone might have a report from a X service dept about it. I'm worried about possible damage myself.

funny how when the weather gets nicer, people statr driving with their windows down and then come the complaints of unusual sounds.

the little clicky tap seems to me just a harmonic resonance of both valve train noise coupled with the cadence of the fuel injector solenoids. this happens at a rate faster than discernable by human ear, but you hear some harmonic of multiple noises happening simulataneously. I have head similar sounds on several other cars I've had. especially V motors. straight sixes and flat sixes are totally the smoothest motors out there. V motors tend to have secondary harmonics of both audible and those you can feel.

I hear it, but dismiss it completely. seroiusly doubt anything is wrong with yours unless you can hear it clearly with the windows rolled up.

I second that. I had the hood up tonight to bleed the brakes and was listening real close and would say most of the noise is the injectors.

I have been hearing light valve chatter when accelerating up inclines. Usually it appears at around 2500-2900 RPMs. It is discernable nearly everytime I go uphill, and intermitently upon "normal" flat-ground acceleration. It has rarely shown up between 3500 and 4500 rpms under "heavier" acceleration.

I have been hearing this with the windows rolled up. My ear is pretty keen, and I would definitely say that it's not something that most people would notice.

Some of you may remember that my engine has already undergone a cam chain/guide replacement (at 1,300 miles). I am a little fearful that I got a defective/problematic engine. Perhaps I am overreacting, but the vehicle has only 6,100 miles on it.

I am a bit leery of getting it diagnosed at the dealership. If it does have a valve timing problem, I'm not sure that I want them rebuilding an engine that has been out less than two years (I'm sure they won't want to replace it altogether).

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You might try a octane booster for a tank or two just to see if maybe it's a fuel issue. It might also be the injectors themselves making the noise as well as the valvetrain. The oil we use is pretty thin and it might just be that rpm range is where it produces the most harmonic resonance. I can't hear my engine over my tires anymore so as a final solution you could always buy some agressive mud tires. J/K

havent experienced that chatter yet, how many Kms or miles do you guys have on your X's?