Lifter noise comes and goes.........

[Nosmo King]

Brand new VW with 2.0 litre engine.
I notice that from day one ,with a fully warmed up motor, there is slight lifter noise at idle.
Warm engine only and this is with 5W-40 dino factory fill oil.First oil change was to 10W-30
Mobil 1 TS. Lifter noise goes.
Second oil change is Mobil 1 TS, 0W-40 and the lifter noise is back. Now this noise is ONLY when motor is fully warmed up. All things being equal I would have thought that 40 would have been better than 30. Any observations appreciated. Great forum by the way

 

[scirocco16V]

you might have a dirty lifter. It probably got break-in debris and doesn't get pumped with enough oil. take it to the dealer and tell them to run some engine flush. if it still ticks, tell the dealer to replace it, most likely they will replace all of them.

 

[diesel_fan]

HLA's (hydraulic lash adjusters) can be pretty finicky with oils. They have extremely small passages which can get clogged with debris. Some designs can also trap air in one part of the HLA and that's why you sometimes get a tapping noise immediately after an oil change.

Before doing the motor flush and/or requesting HLA replacement, you may want to ask your VW techs if air getting trapped inside of the VW HLA is a known problem, or if their factory service manuals address the symptom with a specific procedure (besides replacement) to cure it.

My brand new Mitsubishi I4 ('02) has a procedure in the mfg's service manual for revving the engine up and down at certain RPM's for a specified duration of time to purge air that sometimes can get trapped in the HLA.

[ November 14, 2002, 10:12 PM: Message edited by: diesel_fan ]

 

[sprintman]

I'm 700kms into my 3rd Auto-Rx clean on Mazda turbo and I still get intermittent noisy lifter. I know the engines clean gettin cleaner so I just learntb to live with it. Still don't like it but!!

 

[TooSlick]

Nosmo,

I ran a 0w-30 synthetic in my '97 Jetta after engine break in and never had any issue with lifter noise. I recommend sticking with the lighter viscosities like Mobil 1, 5w-30/10w-30 with this 2.0L engine. I really don't see the need to use anything heavier than a 5w-30 or 10w-30 synthetic in almost ANY new engine, with the exception of an air cooled Porsche or a motorcycle ....If you want to run a VW 502/505 or ACEA A3 oil, look for the thinnest one that meets the spec.

When it comes to synthetic lubes, a heavier oil isn't necessarily required or even desirable in most applications - this is based on almost 25 years worth of experience with synlubes in numerous applications.

TooSlick

[ November 15, 2002, 05:48 AM: Message edited by: TooSlick ]

 

[jjbula]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nosmo King:
First oil change was to 10W-30
Mobil 1 TS. Lifter noise goes.
Second oil change is Mobil 1 TS, 0W-40 and the lifter noise is back.

---

I recommend sticking with the oil that made the lifter noise go away. M1 10w30 is plenty "thin" enough to work well in your engine.

If you see temps below 0F you may want to use a 5w30 or 0w30/0w40.

 

[Nosmo King]

Thanks for the comments from you all.