valve lifter noise/vibration
 

Hi, I just bought a used 2001 civic 2 door LX 49,000miles manual tranny last week from a nissan dealer. A couple of days later, I hear this vibrating/whining sound from the engine. I take it to car-x and they say its lifter noise. They say its unusual for a 2001 civic but I shouldnt be too worried.

Their suggestion: get restore or Lucas oil and put it in. This stuff should clean out the lifters and will eventually the noise will be gone. Maybe after a month or so. They also suggested synthetic oil.

I did what they suggested. I got the oil changed to Penzoil synthetic 5w-20 and put in maybe half a cup of lucas oil. Drove around for a couple of days and still there.

I researched on the net and found that some cars do have this lifter noise and the restore/lucas oil does help. Hopefully that is the case with mine but I will not sleeping well at night until the noise is gone.

Does anybody have any experience with this? Suggestions?

Thanks for the help
Jay

The last time I had a whinning noise it was the alternator. There was a service bullentin where the factory tightened the belt to tight and caused the alternators internal bearing to go bad.

I have a 2001 civic 2 door LX and it happen to me at 46,000miles

maybe you have a supercharger....that'd be tight

Lifters? Our cars have rocker arms.. not lifters. Maybe they meant rocker arms?

Yes.... Hondas don't have hydraulic lifters. Restore and lucas oil won't do a thing. Nor will Marvel mystery oil. The hard rockers may need adjusting, but you would get a tapping/clicking sound from the valve cover. Don't mistake that for the quieter ticking of the fuel injectors, though.

There right, additaves will not help, all they do is make the oil thicker anyway, why not just run 10w-30 anyway, its got some miles on it now. However, valve niose is good to some degree anyway, that means "clearance" and high rpm motors need clearance. But if you are hearing light niose of the valve train working, thats ok, but not loud ticking or noisy chattering. I believe the 2001 requires a valve adjustment at 30k if Im not mistaken, think ASE states its a three hour job, so on the going rate of labor you should be able to get it done for under 300.00 and be out the door in less than two hours. Just my 2cents!

Okay, thanks for the input. Maybe it is valve noise, but should I take it to a honda dealer or just find a shop to get that checked/adjusted?

Also, my car didn't have a manual, how far should the oil be on the dip stick? Between the two dots or at the second dot? Mine is a little over the second dot.

i would take it to the dealer. last time i had honda adjust my valves it cost me $85. and that was with an oil change. i had a whining noise also but it was my power steering pump was bad.

the oil should be fine by the second dot. why dont you run 5w30 mobile one synthetic on there thats what i use and i have never had any problem

I might try mobile 1 on my next oil change. I might go ahead and bite the bullet and go to a dealer. Going to the dealer give me the creeps though. Its not pleasant for me. Man, I dont even have my plates yet. I will post an update on what happens.

do the valve adjustment by yourself.

I think my car needs a valve adjustment. I get this tic tic tick noise once my car warms up. I have a new 04 ex civic. everything else feels normal with the engine, its just when its idling it makes this noise.

Grey did a DIY valve adjustment. Search for it, im lazy.

If you put a thicker oil in your engine, you may be able to lower the ticking noise just a bit. But usually not enough satisfy the owner. On other side of the coin is that a thicker oil will also give your engine a higher wear rate at startup.

I you are sure your valve clearance is the cause, then doing a valve adjustment is the only proper way to remedy the problem. Do make sure it is your valve making the ticking and not just your fuel injector firing. Alot of people make the wrong assumption and it turns out it is the fuel injectors - which is perfectly normal. The injector noise is more pronounce in Civic because the car lack enough sound insulation compare to more expensive cars.

its just your injectors making that tic tic noise. when you see another civic some where with the engine running just listen you will notice it make the same noise they all do. but if your ticking noise gets faster when you accelerate then its your valves.

I agree, maybe use mobile1 10w30, synth oil is usually a little thinner anyway. Thats what I put in after the first oil change at 1500 when it was new. 03 ex

I've been running synthetic oils since 25,000 miles, AMSoil 5w30 since 40,000 miles on my 01 DX. I had the same ticking noise. I adjusted the valves at 125,000 miles and the noise never went away. Also kudos to AMSoil, the valves, even at 125,000 miles didn't really need adjustment, they were at the maximum tolerance, but still "in" tolerance. I ran AMSoil's fuel injector cleaner through the engine, and the noise went down a little. Noise coming from the injectors is common from what research i've done, especially the older they get. And injectors will pulsate faster when the engine revs, so if the noise gets faster as the engine revs, it is not necessarily the valves.