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I have a 93 impreza wagon. I have an annoying clicking/tapping sound when the engine is cold. After about 15-20 mins of drving...the sound seems to die down some. Also, it goes away after changing oil for about 1500-2000 miles then it comes back again. any one have any ideas as to what it might be?

 

clogged lifters? ( maybe take them out and clean them)

piston slap? ( i know the ej25 and 22's and 20's have this problem)

timing belt tensioner? ( don't know if mine has the crappy one or not)

loud injectors? ( i know they tick, but this loud?)

old age? ( 173,000 miles is a lot)

 

any other ideas? this things sounds like the old EA81 in the loyale's and GL wagons until it warms up. thanks in advance for the help guys.

 

Jeff Buchanan

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Wagonman, welcome to the board!

 

My experience has been that all Subarus click and tap!

 

My 82 has done it since.....82!

My Forester does the same thing.

 

I think they are just noisy. Just kidding--Someone will give you a real answer!

 

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer clicks and always has.....

01 Forester taps at low rpms.........

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Welcome wagonman.

 

You said about 1500-2000 miles after an oil change it starts making this sound. Is the engine still full of oil? with 173k, especially on a Subaru, it HAS to be leaking oil somewhere unless pretty much every oil seal in the whole engine has been replaced. You might just be low on oil, and Subaru's ask for oil by tapping their valves, like a baby cries for milk :lol:

 

So keep an eye on your oil level, change it regularly, and see where it goes from there.

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What oil are you using?

 

If the noise is returning at a certain point in the oil's life, it sounds to me like it has 'degraded' to a point where the tapping becomes apparent again.

 

Perhaps a slightly better (or even just different) oil would do the trick.

 

Commuter

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Up until recently, my 96 OBW was ticking all the time. Not just at start up and a little therearfer. ALL the time. Morning, day, night, afternoon ... tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick (that's a lot of ticks). This past weekend I changed my oil and poured in some Castrol GTX 10W30 instead of the Valvoline Maxlife I'd been using for the past 3 or 4 oil change intervals. Within two days, ticking is gone. Maybe the moly in this oil that's apparently lacking in the VML? Doe no ... (I'm fairly certain it's not a matter of oil being lower at the time of change due to consumption at the end of the OCI. It was doing it even after my last change with 4.2 qts of fresh. Plus, I'm not leaking and it checked full even up to the time I changed it, so little or no consumption.) Nevertheless, I'd say definitely experimenting around with different oils would be a good start.

 

Needless to say, I was very happy to find gallon jugs of the GTX at Autozone on sale for $4.99 each (when purchasing two). :banana:

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sorry for the dealay guys and thanks for the warm welcoming.

 

Right now i am using Castrol GTX 10W30. Would a different weight oil help this?

I did try some "Gunk Valve medic" which someone suggested on another site. But sadly, this did nothing for the problem. I don't seem to have an oil leak as the oil is always full and none is coming out from anywhere. I have no idea what this is...but its not the usual subaru tick...we have 5 subaru's right now and about 6 others in the past. any body have any other ideas or suggestions?

 

Jeff

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I'm gonna guess valve train noise. Mine does the same thing -regardless of oil weights or it's respective condition.

 

In fact,I change my oil religiously every 3-4k miles; typically I use Castrol GTX 10W30, but I recently switched to Mobile1, and still I get lots of valve chatter.

If I drive with the windows up, you can't hear it, but with them down and driving next to a curb or a fence or something, the sound is very pronounced.

The interesting thing though, is that my performance doesn't really seem to be effected. It's possible that if I were to somehow correct the issue (assuming it's even a problem) I might notice a difference in acceleration/power, but as far as I can tell it's always done this.

How difficult a job is it to bleed the lifters anyway? Easy enough for a backyard mechanic? I'd be willing to attempt it given enough coaching, but...

Sure does make me wonder.

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