Damn...noisy HLA's?

[Infinitrium]

I changed the oil on my mother's 94 Aspire (used to be my car). I inadvertently overfilled it a bit, but I figured since the car burns a bit of oil once in a while it wasn't going to harm anything. I used cheap Walmart Tech2000 oil and a Canadian Tire oil filter. It's been almost a month since I changed the oil and the car hasn't been driven very far, a few hundred kms if that, but now I'm noticing an awful clattery racket coming from the engine. Would the slightly overfilled oil level cause it? It's not a consistant noise. Sometimes it'll rattle for a second or two upon startup then the noise will disappear. Other times it'll rattle on startup and not go away at all, and other times it won't make a sound. Could this be the HLA's or something? Would changing to a new, better oil filter plus draining out some oil take care of the noise?

[darkdan]

I doubt the oil has anything to do with it.

Chances are it's the HLA and them going dirty just happens to be near an oil change.

www.auto-rx.com fixed my HLA problem until winter hit. Eventually I gave up and replaced them.

Maybe yours aren't too far gone to try to save. Worth a shot.

You can use coupon code ARXDD for a few bucks off a bottle.

If it doesn't solve your HLA then at least your ring packs will be clean for better compression (aka, mileage and hp).

Also, don't knock Tech2000 or Supertech oil. I'd buy it over conventional Valvoline any day of the week.

[Infinitrium]

The car's only been in my family's posession for maybe 5 months. When I bought it for myself, I changed the oil and used 15W40 XD3 and a Carquest filter. Valvetrain never made a peep. It was just a few weeks ago that the oil was changed with the Tech2000 5w30 and Canadian Tire filter. As I mentioned earlier, the noise isn't present all the time, just on random occasions. I'm hoping a filter change with another Carquest filter will solve the noise. BTW, what do you have to say about Valvoline Maxlife? It seems to have really slowed an oil leak in my 92 Accord. Been a bit over 1200 miles since I changed the oil in the Accord, and so far I've used less than 1/2 a quart. On my Previous OCI with QS winter blend 5w30, I was going through probably a quart every 500 miles or so.



edit: it's only been maybe 300 miles since the last oil change on the Aspire, the oil wouldn't be dirty already would it?

[darkdan]

Maxlife is mainly marketing.

They take a conventional oil, add in a few extra detergents/dispersants, and if you're lucky some type of ester or two.

Some of the high mileage oils don't even contain esters.

Besides, the ester content is really small. In a 12 oz bottle of auto-rx I believe you're getting about 10 oz of esters. Far more then what's in the average Maxlife oil change.

300 miles? The oil shouldn't be dirty. But like I said, the HLA might have just gotten dirty enough.

Also, in winter oil is obviously thicker at start up. So it could be a combonation of a slightly dirty HLA and too thick of oil to flow into it easily at start up. This may be why it doesn't happen everyday.

[Safety Guy]

Dan, what are esters supposed to do?

Karl

[darkdan]

Considering there's over 200 esters for oil and more being designed/made everyday.....pretty much anything.

Auto-rx contains at least two esters. One for cleaning and one for lubrication. I believe it's the cleaning one that helps with seals.

PAO synthetics (Mobil1/AMSOIL/etc) contain esters to offset PAO's natural tendency to allow seals to shrink.

That "start-up" oil that "clings".....esters. Esters are polar by nature and thus attracted to metal. So it's true that oil "clings" to metal because there's always a molecule thin layer of esters. Not what most people are thinking of, but it's not false advertisement.

Red Line uses esters as a base oil.

But like I said, auto-rx has unique patented esters.

FYI, an ester is what you get when you expose a fatty acid to an alcohol.

[Safety Guy]

Thanks Dan!

Karl

[upgtx]

I don't know if the hla's are the same, but I just did them on my 323 and have at least 8 good ones if you want them on the cheap.

[bassman]

i have given up.
mine make noise after new oil but after a 100 miles they get quite.
also mine will be loud and i turn off the car then start it right up and no noise.
i will try auto rx soon ans see if that is the answer.
car has 150 000 k on it

[darkdan]

The HLA have VERY small little holes to get oil into them.

Which means cold oil has a hard time getting into it, and hot oil has an easy time draining out of them.

If they're a little dirty (or the o-ring is failing) then they go noisy.

[COOPER7486]

WHAT'S HLA'S?

WHAT ARE HLA'S AND HOW DO I FIND THEM?

[Guest]

yeah, just ordered a bottle of ARX.. I let my oil get a little too dirty and the hlas are yelling at me... I changed the oil and oil filter (mobile1 & k&n) hopefully the noise goes away on it's own before the ARX gets here.. but just in case..:wink:

[darkdan]

FYI, if you use synthetic for the cleaning phase, extend it out to 2000 or 2500 miles.

Be sure to only use conventional oil for the rinse phase.


HLA are the little things that keep the valves from flopping around. They're located on the rocker arms. They're about $8 to $11 each and tend to get dirty and go bad.