Rattling sound driver side of the engine, please help!

[kikkegek]

hi guys,

I need some help.

I had a small allmost not audible rattle on the driver side of the engine. Went to a shop and it is so hard to hear, that they didnt make a point of it..."it's nothing, dont worry!"

It even went away and then came back and went away...

then when I flushed the cooling system recently...I heard it again and it seemed louder...

later...it went away again....and now it is back again..but again a little louder and now very easy to hear.

I am having a hard time to locate it precisely. At first I thought of the A/C pump...but since it is not ON, it cant be, I guess.

Now I am thinking of the power steering pump...

the noise is not metal like, but more plastic...like when you hit something plastic with something hard...and it is not constant with the rpm of the engine...it's more like....

tik....tik......................tiktiktik..........tik.......tik...........tik...tik...

okay, this might sound crazy....but its allmost as if I would have dropped a small coin in the power steering pump...although I have no idea how the inside of this pump looks like....

do you guys have any pointers or ideas of how to investigate this?

(sorry for my bad english, I am dutch)...