felixcat

After the car is started, I noticed there are not so big but easy to notice 'ticking' sound coming out from my 96 ES300's engine compartment (while open the hood and facing the engine, or sitting in the driver seat with door closed, I can NOT hear the ticking neither; I can only hear the ticking while standing beside the front wheels and it is quite noticeable and loud).

So I called my mechanic. Because he has just done some repair on my car and he remember the sound, he immediately concluded that this is caused by the engine's valve lifters (the so call 'valve clearance' problem), and he explain that he had repair many Toyota engines in his life，and such ticking sound is very common for an engine has such mileage (mine are 118k).

He said this problem would not harm the engine much, plus if I want this to be fixed, the cost will be expensive and not many autoshop can perform the repair well enough, so he did not suggest me to touch it (he said he can do it well but it will cost quite many hours of labour), so he let me just live with it. This mechanic is my good friend and he has nearly 30 years experiences of reparing engines, especially for Toyotas, Hondas and Nissians, so I trust what he said.

Now here comes the point: he also told me if I really mind such ticking sound, I can use an oil additive which brand name is 'Restore' (http://www.restoreusa.com/), he said this will work on the problem, although can not completely solve it.

So I want to give a try, with the bottom line 'it should not do any harm to the engine'.

I have done some research on the internet and knew some engine oil additive will harm the engine and accelerate the wear of the components. So my questions are:

1. Is there anyone has the experience of using this product? Any comments?

2. Does it require the mechanic with very experienced technique to perfome the repair well?

3. If I want get problem fixed within a reasonalbe cost, could someone recommend a repair shop in Houston (cauz I'm in Houston)? Thanks.

MCV20

Actually i just had that problem fix, it come out as all the rear valve gone bad, and all the front look fine, and i m pretty happy without the ticking sound( make it sounds like a desiel eng), and even my mechanic dont knw what makes it like that happen... ( currently i have 270,000 km on my 97 ES) and he told me that if u leave it like that it will damge the piston in long run....

as for me , i just cant live with the ticking sound anymore after 1 and half of years of wait

Pheonix

All valves eventually go out of clearance, some earlier than others. Toyota, depending on the specific valvetrain, generally advises to check / adjust the clearance every 65,000-75,000m to 150,000-250,000 miles.
I would just live with it for awhile. It's not difficult, any entry level mechanic could to it. Given a weekend, and a set of feeler gauges, a home mechanic could do it.
1) It's a very bad idea in the first place. The shims have worn down & need replacing with the correct size. Anything in a can won't magically put more nickle steel on the shim.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm
2) No, just time

There are 24 valves, and you check/replace them each one at a time in specific sets of 8, then spin the crankshaft 270* & repeate. The directions are in most manuals.
Haynes, the Toyota/Lexus repair manual, etc.

Lexmex

I use that Restore oil additive in my RX300, but it won´t help for that particular problem you have felixcat. It can help with some compression issues, but it is not an absolute fix by any means even for that.

3000

I've used a bunch of stuff like marvel mystery oil, Lucas oil stabilizer, etc. It's not like a huge improvement but it helps only a little.