Lifter tick help

[pscmj84]

Re: Lifter tick help

I had the very same problem after getting my oil changed at pepboys back in April. They used 5w-30. After speaking with my uncle he was like, check the oil, sometimes they screw you over. I check the oil and I was over a quart low. He then told me to add a thicker oil to the engine because he felt 5w-30 was too light/thin. I added high mileage 15w-30 (car as 120,000 miles on it -- also bought the thicker racing oil too just in case), and the tick went away. Now it just sounds like it did when I bought the car. =]

I'll check to make sure the oil level is good, but I'm 99% certain I added 4.5 quarts a couple weeks ago when I change the oil. Depending on where the level is at, I'll defenitely look into adding a quart of high mileage oil and see what that does.

[pscmj84]

Re: Lifter tick help

I checked the dipstick, and the car was at around the add portion of the dipstick, so I added a quart of regular 10w-30. Now, it seems the problem is getting worse. The car's oil pressure used to be around 50 at idle and 70 at cruise / acceleration. Now, the oil pressure is at 35 idle and 50 crusing / acceleration. The ticking is now taking longer to go away, if at all. I'm taking it somewhere this week so they can give me a diagnosis of what the problem could be. If the ticking is not hurting anything, than I don't care, but if it means something is going to break soon then I'll guess I have no choice but to get it fixed since I need the car to last another year.

[pscmj84]

Re: Lifter tick help

Well, took it to a mechanic so they could have a listen. After he heard the tick, he said that it could possibly be a lifter, but since the valves weren't sticking it could also be something cheaper and easier like a rocker arm or pushrod. Since it sounded like it was coming from the passenger side, he took off the valve cover and checked everything in there. Everything looked good on top, so after a bit more listening he finally decided it was the #6 lifter. We both agreed that at 172k it wasn't worth it to tear down everything to replace a lifter. So, he decided to drain a quart of oil and replace it with a quart of lucas oil additive to thicken up the oil. That made things much better, but it still ticks for a couple minutes on a cold start. He couldn't really say how much longer the lifter would last. Basically, it could go out tomorrow or it could go out two years from now. The best thing we can do right now is change the oil every 2500 miles or so and make sure to subsitute a quart of oil for a quart of the lucas oil. This certainly isn't a permanent fix, but hopefully it will get me another year out of this car before I have to buy another one.