tapping valve or lifter..?

[low sittin 8g]

ok.. i tried everything anyones ever suggested.. the only thing i ever found that cured the tapping was a full synthetic oil..

i tried everything.. if you dont believe me you can try the whole 500 rpm for 30 seconds or whatever. i tried..

just thought i'd tell yall cuz it seems to be a common problem

[JJSki78]

The only way to cure lifter ticking is to clean or replace your lifters. Full synthetic oil will stop working after about 6k. Trust me, mine is awful, just haven't had the time to pull out the lifters and clean them.

[obxguy2000]

As soon as my car hit around 36k miles my engine started ticking as well. I have read several searches on this. I put high octane gas in it the other day and the ticking has stopped. What would cause this to happen? Should I go into the motor or just keep using high octane?
Sincerly,
Man on a budget!

[JJSki78]

I have no idea why high octane fuel would fix the problem. I personally would deal with the ticking, run 87 and use the money you save to buy a new valve cover gasket and a jug of castrol super clean so you can clean out your lifters. That's my .02

[HeadAche]

The tick is just a defect, is happens on all the 8g's and the 3g's as well.. But mine has stopped after using 93 octane...

[Fall Out Boy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Reelax)</div><div class='quotemain'>common mitsu problem... lifter tick.

go to pepboys or autozone or the such and get RISLONE (yellow bottle) or CD2 (smaller yellow bottle). pour one of them into your oil resevoir and it will go away for a while.</div>

[ChuloMxcn]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fall Out Boy)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Reelax)</div><div class='quotemain'>common mitsu problem... lifter tick.

go to pepboys or autozone or the such and get RISLONE (yellow bottle) or CD2 (smaller yellow bottle). pour one of them into your oil resevoir and it will go away for a while.</div></div>

I bought some lifter cleaner too, forgot the name of it and it didnt work immediately, but i noticed it wasnt as bad, then a week later i got my oil changed and it went away completely!!!

[FinalLast]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Fall Out Boy")</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Reelax")</div><div class='quotemain'>common mitsu problem... lifter tick.

go to pepboys or autozone or the such and get RISLONE (yellow bottle) or CD2 (smaller yellow bottle). pour one of them into your oil resevoir and it will go away for a while.</div></div>

where is the oil resevoir?

[pinoyesv6]

just pour it into the same place you pour the oil. in the valve cover. open up the oil cap and pour it away

on a side note. i was getting lifter tick agian using mobil1. i changed back to non synthetic penzoil (had some aorund the house) and it went away. don't know when it will come back but I will tell you this is one of the last times I buy mobil1. from now on, back to amsoil.

[jusmills]

so the lifter tick is primarily due to a poorly engineered part? I think I read somewhere that the 3G (maybe newer 2002+?) have revised lifters with bigger passages...would changing to them help? Isn't the cost pretty steep too?

[pinoyesv6]

if you are still under your drivetrain warranty, the dealer will fix it. i got mine changed back in i think 2003. it has come back though. if it was still under warranty i'd do it again but its not and its just annoying. not doing any big harm

[MatrixRenagade]

My Galant is an 03 and I have that lifter tick like hell. So I don't think it was revised, and if so, it just wasn't done too well.. My Drivetrain is STILL under the factory warranty. Maybe I should bring it in before that expires? I know it just drives me nuts :x to hear it, and I'm going to save up and get my top-end built up after the warranty is out anyway, but that's not for another 17,000 Miles. Although, I might just go and do it before if I can get all the parts together. So, I have a little time to see how that goes.

MatrixRenagade

[JGMaverick]

How the hell do you clean your lifters? People have told me thats what the sound is.. but I dont even know what the hell a lifter is or where it is located, lol.. yeah I may sound dumb but help would be good..

[Ritalin Kid]

For the record high octane gas only works for so long. I use 89 now but before I used 93 all the time and the sound came back.

Has anyone tried using an oil stabilizer like Lucas or Restore to solve the problem?

[Kalamidad]

just pour it into the same place you pour the oil. in the valve cover. open up the oil cap and pour it away

on a side note. i was getting lifter tick agian using mobil1. i changed back to non synthetic penzoil (had some aorund the house) and it went away. don't know when it will come back but I will tell you this is one of the last times I buy mobil1. from now on, back to amsoil.

Piony...A mechanic told me that i should not change from Synthetic to non-synthetic...you just said the opposite. Why might my mechanic be right?

[pinoyesv6]

most synthetic oils of today are compatible with other brands and even mixing with blends and regular conventional oils. back in the day onec you go synthetic you couldn't go that because of the high levels of ester in the early synthetics. this isn't that much of a problem now.

[Proto]

synthetic works miracles for me.. Mobile 1 10W-30

[Kalamidad]

Thanks Piony.

[Da_silvagride]

<span style='color:darkblue'>Yea I got a 03 Inline 4 with close to 28.700 and I brought it to the dealer 3 times about the ticking noise they said it was all fine. I was like, this sound does not seem like its ok. Cause I listened to my firends 01 8g (has about 54,800mi on it) and his didn't even make that ticking noise. I tried the 93 octane, 89 octane, and 87. But they are all temporary. I use Castrol Semi Synthetic oil 10w-30 which is what the dealer uses on all the oil changes on the Galants. I was thinking of going to 5w-30 semi synthetic since the factory book recommends 5w-30 for the 4g64 engines.
How can I make the dealer clean my lifters before my warranty is out. I only got a month left. Thanks.

Worst comes worst will this lifter ticking effect the cars performance in the long haul if I can't get it fixed. Because I don't really want to open up the factory seal on the valve cover with out knowning the proper procedure to clean and put it together to OEM specs.

Every day I hear the ticking when warming up the car. It drives me crazy and worried I will have to spend alot out of my pocket to fix this problem. It goes away after I warm it up sometimes. In the future I plan to add some mods to it. like a CAI, HEADERS, EXHAUST, and hopefully a Supercharger. My question is that if I didn't get the lifters cleaned will the chances of my engine being damaged be high?

Thanks </span>

[discipline]

What kinda oil are you guys using? 10W30, 5W30, 5W20 ???

My '99 Galant I4 from the state of MN had 80k on it when the ticking started. To date it now has 110k. And I have been dealing with the ticking problem ever since then, but my ticking only occured on a cold engine. Ticking dissapeared after driving 55+MPH for 5-10 minutes. According to the tick, that was a warm engine.


Here's some info to add:

I've read the 2001 Mitsu Galant Service Manual regarding the ticking noise. This drove me to try the foot on gas pedal technique. Still not good enough. Then I tried the next suggestion in the manual. I removed the valve cover. Then removed, cleaned and re-installed all the lash adjusters.

Still did not solve the ticking. So tried the various engine detergents. Works for a while, but comes back. The only thing that seems to fix the ticking is putting in 5W30 oil. I learned this after putting in 5W30 one winter and noticed that the ticking went away. Then spring 2005 came I put in 10W30 and ticking re-appeared for cold engine (but as I say at top- its gone after warmup). Back to 5W30 and all my ticking is gone even on a cold engine. Presently I run Valvoline Durablend 5W30 (synthetic blend).

By the way... the I4 does not use lifters. Its camlobes contact the rocker arms which contact lash adjusters which finally contact the valves. Having lash adjusters gives you self adjusting valve back-lash. Remember, with Honda's you have to adjust the valves every 30k. The ticking noise AFAIK, is produced when any one of these lash adjusters becomes dry. They require to always be filled with oil to function. As for my engine, I cannot explain exaclty why one or more of my lash adjusters becomes dry! Perhaps its less than optimal oil circulation on the top-side during idle?

Good luck!