98 2.5 gt tick tick tick tick BLAHHH ! HELP !

[eltrd]

ok I know there might be a thread about this already, anyways I bought my legacy a month back....motor sounded strong then 2 weeks after I started hearing this ticking noise coming from I believe the driver side head? Ugh shit is annoying, I called local subaru specialist and asked if they could do a valve adjustment, they said " no you cant adjust them due to them being hydraulic lifters".
They told me to use 5 30 oil and that it would go away......I find that hard to believe.
Anyone have any ideas on what I should do ? Or can the lifters be adjusted ???
HELP !

[d1giPhux]

Thats a typical subaru sound unfortunately. As long as the valves aren't bent or something.. they should be okay for a while. What weight oil are you currently running?

[eltrd]

Previous owner out in 20w50 I thought that was a little to much, car only has 155k miles on it

[d1giPhux]

Yeah.. try some 10w30.. or better yet, for winter 5w30. It may help. 20w50 is waaaaay too thick in my opinion. Most people run 5w, or 10w30.

[eltrd]

I live in socal so I was thinking 5w30 would be like water lol, anyone know these valves can be messed with ?

[d1giPhux]

Not unless you feel like rebuilding the head I would guess..then again, this really isnt my area of expertise. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

5w30 isnt too bad, you should run 10w30 however. Definitely wouldn't be running 20w50.. never even heard of anyone running that in a subaru before.

You can download the factory service manual out of my signature if you would like to look around in the FSM.

Do you know for sure its the valves? I'm assuming it is, since the tapping noise is a common subaru problem with valves..

[eltrd]

Yeah the car runs strong its just that damn lifter tapping that's getting to me lol

[Wiscon_Mark]

The lifter ticking usually happens with low oil pressure. If you have a leak or a low oil level it's more likely to happen. I ran diesel 15w-40 oil in my engine when I had a leak, which helped slow the leak, and cured the ticking noise. (I've since gotten all leaks fixed, and switched back to 5w-30) Now it only ticks when it's very cold before the engine warms up. The car probably started making that noise at around 160,000 miles, and I've got 220k on the odometer now. So don't call the car in dead, it's probably going to be just fine for a long time.

One other thought - make sure you're running a good oil filter. Some cheap filters don't have a drain back valve which can cause dry starts and make the lifters sticky.

[eltrd]

Well as far as the filter I'm running a fram.......well that's what came with the car, and the car doesn't leak a drop at all so I don't get it :-(
I just noticed today I drove it on the freeway and when I got off the ticking was 95.5% gone.......how exactly would I go about getting rid of it completely ?

[Wiscon_Mark]

I'd recommend OEM or Wix for a filter. (rumor has it Wix makes the Subaru filter) I'd stay away from Fram filters, their quality has gone downhill over the last 10 years.

Was it more of a tapping sound or more of a clicking sound? I find the Subaru engines naturally make a small clicking sound all the time, but if it's a tapping noise, that's the lash adjusters (valve lifters).

[eltrd]

Yeah it is a tapping sound.......how can I fix it ? Ugh I feel like a super newb haha this is only my 2nd legacy.

[eltrd]

Here is a video of what I hear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xf3skaZ ... ata_player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xf3skaZz9Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player)

[Wiscon_Mark]

That doesn't sound that bad...

Perhaps the phone mic isn't picking it up that much, but it sounds like a fairly normal Subaru noise to me. Do an oil change, slap a high quality oil filter on there, put some good oil in it, and let us know. But I wouldn't be worried about the car unless it gets super loud.

[r3v_v3ng3]

When was your timing belt done? Was the tensioner and idler pulleys/gear changed? My friends 2.5rs idler gear failed (cause it wasn't changed with the timing belt) and spewed out all the ball bearing inside of it and threw the motor off timing and damaged it. His didn't sound like that, more like a loud tapping noise. Just a heads up before its a 1k mistake (without labor)