my ffrr has developed a strange taping sound from the centre of the dash as soon as i open any door or bonnet, sounds like a stripped gear on a heater flap or something but these shouldnt move when i open a door, dose it for about 15 seconds then stops, any body have some good clues

many people have had this or similar squeal noise, cant confirm here, but its often the fan in the engine ecu box, under the bonnet. there is a pipe that it draws air from the cabin, via said fan, to the ecu box, that appears to direct the noise back to the heater aera. if you hear it, and quickly thump the ecu box, (before it times out) if it changes pitch or stops, then it safe to say its the fan. there are threads showing how to remove ecu's and fan and grease it, as its all thats needed. a new fan is small/simple but expensive though. its like a 2 inch pc fan.

Yep, sounds like the ECU fan! But I will say that I experienced something very similar in the car that the garage lent me while I had multiple gearboxes. It was a Merc 4 door thingy with a diesel lump and horrid turbo lag, nothing special, anyway every time I turned it on it would clunk and whir for a while and then shut up. Wasn't too worried, wasn't mine.
The second time I had the car I thought that I'd have a nose around and try ang get to the bottom of the clunking and whirring, turned out to be the audio system...........the 12 disc CD changer was empty and it was trying to load them  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Naw, clicking is not the ECU fan, it will likely be a bad gear in a stepper motor - just like you diagnosed, Balki.

I'd guess the stepper for the air to the red seats. Remove the RH console cover and the motor is right there. 
RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr,
P38, and 2 L322s
(wife thinks I'm nuts - prob right, too)

Could it possibly be caused by a Tasmanian Devil trapped behind the dashboard?

tassie devil, i must feed it so it shuts up, thanks fo rthe advice will look at steeper motor

SteveMFr wrote:

Naw, clicking is not the ECU fan, it will likely be a bad gear in a stepper motor - just like you diagnosed, Balki.

I'd guess the stepper for the air to the red seats. Remove the RH console cover and the motor is right there.