Hello! Engine Noise! Yey!

[LubeTechJared]

Hey all, first post here since I registered a bit ago. Been lurking the forums taking in the atmosphere and must say its a good one. A quick intro to who I am and what I'm about. 19. College drop out (soon to be going back to school for automotive). Currently I work in a toyota/nissan garage as a lube tech which brings me moderate satisfaction but doing 20 oil changes a day can get boring. I sometimes get the pleasure of doing other stuff at work but not often. I bought my festiva in late August. The guy wanted 950 for it but after taking a drive with him in it and looking things over I talked him down to 650. I may have overpaid a bit but I don't mind I've loved this car. I wasn't to worried about mechanical issues and the car has never been wrecked and there is very little rust. The interior is almost spotless save for the seat carpet tearing a bit. I've had an issue crop up that I wanted to share with this community to see what they have to say. I've already talked it over with everyone in my garage and my dad whos been an ASE certified master tech for many many moons. Anyways.....

My festy is a 1992, 1.3l, 5speed manual, Roughly 173,000 on the engine. Nothing modified....YET And yes I will try to post pictures soon so long as Ohio weather is willing.

Repairs I've personally done so far:
(This is from memory...if I forget something I'll add later.)
Wires, plugs, cap, and rotor
Clutch
Replaced both cv axels
Rear brakes
Valve cover gasket
New Cheap 4" speakers
Old Concord am/fm casette tuner
Mounted Tachometer (haven't wired yet just bought today)
Mounted and Balanced 4 new tires
Sand blasted and painted all the wheels

Definite future repairs:
Alignment
Going to finish wiring the tach and install an oil pressure guage too
Engine Rebuild
Get a head unit that takes cd's
Get some 5 1/2" speakers for the rears
Detail the interior
Who knows....

The Problem: OKKK so (big swig of beer) when I first got my festiva I wanted to drive it immediately but alas there was a reason I took 300 off the asking price and so I began to invest 300 dollars in parts and then my labor in to the car. Finally after getting the title in my name and the insurance on the car it was October. I didn't see any more repairs that would need to happen before I began driving sooo... See you later good ol Explorer ya damn gas guzzling menace. Hello freedom. Now, I probably drove the festiva for about a week or two (I changed the oil in it when I began to drive it. Put maxlife in it.). Then, one morning I get to work and I hear a TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP. So I goose the throttle to see if it is inline with rpm. And low and behold the sounds gets faster and louder. I shut the car off at this point and walk in to work anxious to get off to figure out what the hell is going on. I tell some people at work about it. One guy said that it could be a loss of oil pressure and the upper part of the engine (valves, springs, rockers) weren't getting enough oil. That after so many miles the varnish could be making a spring in the oil pump stick. Another co worker told me that it was probably the 1 or so of the hydraulic lash adjusters goofing causing a rocker arm to stick. Needless to say these were my only wheels and I'm an idiot sometimes so I drove home with the noise. (I checked the oil level with the dipstick before I did this and it was fine. I don't have any leaks either.) My dad thought it could be any number of things the guys at work talked about however he was anxious about the fact that it sounded a little lower. Like a rod bearing.

At this point my dad and I went to get the car on a lift and put a stethoscope to it. My dad teaches auto tech and has a lab. (That I can sometimes use ) Anyway, there was a night class going on so we let it sit for tomorrow. That afternoon on my lunch I went over to my dad's school to listen to the noise. We bring it in. Rack it. Fire it up and......nothing. Normal rocker noise. We let it get up to operating temp and goose the throttle....still no noise. HUH? Damn. (Now I'm going to step out for a smoke..) OK, so my dad had the car in his lab for a few days, each day starting it up a few times but still no engine noise. So, I we figured welllll it could have been a hydraulic lifter that got some gunk in it or somethin like that and it cleared. About 3 days after that on my lunch I heard the noise again. :disgust: After work fired it up ready to take it over to my dad's shop and take a close listen but alas it went away again.... You see the pattern now I'm guessing.

So, after talking with my dad of all the possibilities which there are quite a few. I decided to run some engine cleaner through it change the oil and then put some LucasOil additive in it. I did this yesterday. So far there has been no noise yet. I'm expecting it to return but I could be surprised. I know that I have an engine rebuild ahead of me and I'm very excited and willing to do it. However, after working on this car for a while I'd also like to drive it too. For now what I plan to do is keep driving and keep my ears open for the noise. I also plan on installing an oil pressure guage just to keep an accurate eye on things in that department. Also, I plan on replacing all the rocker arms and lash adjusters. The engine rebuild will come but I would like to try and hold off on it till after winter. Free time is always an issue and also I don't get to use my dad's lab like my own it is a school after all... I guess kids gotta learn.

What do you guys think? Sorry this is such a long read but I figured I oughta tell the whole thing and try to put as much detail to it as possible. In order for more informed opinions. Please ask me if you'd like to know more info or if I left something out. Cheers.

Oh and there is another tapping/clicking noise but we (me, my father, coworkers) think that it is just a solenoid as it does not change pitch or speed with engine rpm. And, it is not intermittent.

Ok then...opinions/thoughts/stories?

[lanemeyer14]

Sounds like the Hla's to me. My white one does it sometimes so I just turn the radio up

[hot4dl8ly]

That noise is most likely a hydraulic lash adjuster sticking- intermittently-they do it more after the car sits for awhile. Not a very difficult repair, they fit in the ends of the rocker arms-throttle body comes off, then the valve cover, then the rocker shafts-walking the bolts up evenly. Hardest part is fighting the springs on the shaft that hold the rockers in position when going back together. I have seen them sold as a set on ebay for something like $40. Good luck, Michael.

[Damkid]

its been so long since i drove a festiva with a B3 that i can't help ya too much, but if it's intermittant, i'd say maybe try changing the oil again and see if it helps

[GenevaDirt]

Hello and welcome. First....when you get a chance go in to your profile and add your location...you mentioned Ohio....where. Helps more then you would know.
2nd....I am no mechanic but if the noise is topside...I would say lifters/lash adjusters....whatever you want to call them. I have had numerous Festy's and they all have made noise from time to time. The lifters lose pressure for various reasons and make some noise. Is it from the passenger side mostly.....that is where mine has always seem to originate from.

[mechanicaldj]

should not be any need to replace the rocker arms

but i would just replace the HLA's instead

may also want to change to synthetic 5W40 instead of conventional oil and no Lucas(as it will leave the engine at every oil change)

[LubeTechJared]

So you can just replace the lash adjusters then without replacing the rocker arms? And that isn't bad at all for the set but are they new?

Edit: Geneva- yes it does seem to be coming from pass side mostly.
Mechanicaldj- I understand the Lucas will come out but I figured it wouldn't hurt for a couple of oil changes. Also why 5w40 instead of 5w30? Currently using valvoline maxlife 5w30.

Also I realized in that first post I said I was 19 derrr...I'm now 20 my bday was in September.

[GenevaDirt]

So you can just replace the lash adjusters then without replacing the rocker arms? And that isn't bad at all for the set but are they new?

Edit: Geneva- yes it does seem to be coming from pass side mostly.
Mechanicaldj- I understand the Lucas will come out but I figured it wouldn't hurt for a couple of oil changes. Also why 5w40 instead of 5w30? Currently using valvoline maxlife 5w30.

Also I realized in that first post I said I was 19 derrr...I'm now 20 my bday was in September.

Ha....seems like that is where mine always makes noise at....yes you can just replace the HLA if you are so inclined. I believe that is new on ebay btw.

I would be cautious of using something to clean the engine that is supposed to do it immediately. It could break more stuff loose then what the system can absorb. If it does it over time thats the way I would go.

[LubeTechJared]

Ha....seems like that is where mine always makes noise at....yes you can just replace the HLA if you are so inclined. I believe that is new on ebay btw.

I would be cautious of using something to clean the engine that is supposed to do it immediately. It could break more stuff loose then what the system can absorb. If it does it over time thats the way I would go.

I don't know about the cleaners but with the additives they recommend use every oil change. I'm not saying that I've decided that from now on I'm going to use a qt of engine cleaner and then .25 qts of additive every change ( because that is $$$$) but I don't think anything I used was designed to be a one use deal. That would be some powerful stuff abrasive stuff. But yeh I'm probably not going to use the engine cleaner any more just because the oil that came out with the engine cleaner wasn't all that crappy lookin and I used what I got. And, for the next 2 oil changes I'll probably still use the lucas additive because I got it and it can't hurt. But before the next oil change looks like I'm gonna go ahead and replace those lash adjusters because looks like that would be a good start.

[eurotiva]

Here is some advice for all...................do not run engine cleaner in a 18+ year old car unless.............you are ready to replace alot of seals and gasket.......because when they (seals that hold moving parts i.e. front,rear mains...) wear gunk helps keep them sealed

[LubeTechJared]

I hear ya. I'm not going to use the engine cleaner again. I don't have a problem replacing seals and gaskets though if it means a clean motor. Forgot to add to my repairs list that I did the front main seal when I did the clutch. At least I think that was the front main behind the flywheel?

Anyone feel as if the noise is anything other than the hydraulic lash adjusters?????

[FestYboy]

you did the rear main, the front main is behind the crank pully.

[Tim]

The first tapping noise is your Hydraulic Lash Adjusters. I've owned a couple Festivas that did this, and other than the noise caused zero problems. In fact, I drove my current Festiva for over a year with noisy HLAs before I finally got around to switching them out. The noise seems to come and go depending on engine temperature.

My car also makes the other clicking noise you describe. It's one of those solenoids on the firewall. I verified this by putting my car in gear (automatic), gently driving it up against a wall, and then hopping out to see where the clicking came from.


-Tim

[m715]

I would agree with most above. The Mazda HLA's have a habit of sticking, and you don't really know the full history of service from P.O. Change out the oil every 3,000 miles, and give the engine some time to clean itself out a little. Don't get discouraged, the engines are TOUGH!
Welcome to the site! Plan on Ohiosteva come spring.

Michael

[LubeTechJared]

FestyBoy- Thanks I forgot which one I did. My mechanical knowledge is still pretty novice.
Tim- Ok cool I thought it sounded like one of those solenoids on the firewall but wasn't sure.
Michael- Thanks for the pointers. I shall not be discouraged and am happy to hear that many have shared this noise. I'm also glad to know the engines are pretty tough. Ye I'll try to make it to the Ohio meet would be fun.

Well cool, thank you all for a good welcome to the site and helping me calm my fears of catastrophic failure. I have not heard any tapping for a few days now but I still plan on replacing the lash adjusters in the not to distant future maybe next weekend or the weekend after. Will let you guys know if the noise returns after replacing them. Thanks again.

-Jared