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Hello all,
For a few months now iv been in the market for a used civic. I have a friend who has 2 and he got me into Honda brand. I just scored a sweet deal on auto trader for a black 1996 DX civic coupe 5 speed and I love it. I am going to through so much into it its going to be great. Im sure I will be here searching for great info. The car runs very clean, has nice paint/air/sterio/interior. Only thing is when I showed it to my friend he noticed a chattering noise from under the hood. He said its most likely loose valves wich would be great and easy to fix vs somthing much much worse. He said there is a possability that it could be a bent rod or somthing like that. Right away i felt paranoid. I took it to somone els and he said it was loose valves and that its a common problem in 4-cylinders after 100k miles. My car has 118k. My friends is over 200k woot. Anyways I changed the oil and the noise is still there. One of the friends suggested I put this thick engine protectant in my engine to help stop the noise but I had just changed the oil and used 4 quarts, The dip stick is abit above full so i dont wanna put more fluid in. What should I do? I could try to tighten the valves with a torqe wrench? Is this a common issue with these civics? Thanx in advance.

 
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it might not be a tightness issue, more of an adjusting issue, tigher is not always better with valves, get some valve feeler gauges and actually adjust them, dont just tighten them, get a haynes manual, and follow teh procedures listed

 
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also forgot to mention that the original owner told me it needs a new oxogyn sensor? It occasionaly doesnt want to idle and i need to give it gas to keep it from dieing as a result of this problem. She sais its not a big deal but if i wanna fix it it would cost like 250$.

 
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Thanx green that is a great tip. Il talk to my honda guru friend about it. By the way do you think its a possability that its a bent rod? Wouldnt it make more of a hard thud noise vs the light chattering? Im getting good exeleration and when I place my hand over the oil cover hole I feel a good vaccume seal pressure feeling so does it even make scense to assume its a big problem? I dont know **** about this but im learning and enthused

 
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well today I took it to a knolagable honda mechanic and he said it was the injecters. lol.