My car has 150,000 miles and the valves tap in the morning when I start it. Is it in a need of adjustment? It runs quiet the rest of the time and no smoking. When should I adjust them is it expensive? TIA

Treon

 

Hey Tre:
I do not know how loud your tapping noise is so I expect that it is loud enough for you to take notice and consider it not normal. that said, just how cold is it where you live (in the morning)? I do remember doing some "time" up in the north of Michigan and in the winter my car (which was just fine in the summer) sounded like crap on the 5 degree cold mornings. Folks there used to use heated dip sticks or keep a light bulb in the engine compartment or block heaters. The oil got so thick it did not lubricate at all, and tires maintained a flat spot for about a mile.

SO, if you are in the north and cold part of the USA or Canada, I would perhaps suggest that you use a very light grade synthetic oil that keeps a flowing viscosity when real cold.

Now, if it is NOT cold in the mornings where you are, then, by all means have a mechanic check out your valve adjustment. These are done with metal wafers and it appears to be a tedious task. I expect it is not cheap but do not know for sure.

Once the engine is warmed up, do you get knock or valve train clatter when you really stand on the gas pedal??

 

I actually have that problem too but when the rpm is raised from revving it taps more and more quickly... it's really annoying when you're in the light's.

I asked one of the machanic and they said that it's just part of the wear and tear things with the tappers, he said that it wouldn't do any harm to your engine but you are loosing abit of power for the engine though, the machanic said that it only cost AU$15 for one of the tappers but in the V8 there are 32 cams (32 tappers), you dont actually fix all of these, just the one's that are orn the one's that is out of align can be re-align to stop the tapping noise, so just hope that the tapping comes from only 1 or even 6 tappers, dont know whether is better to replace the whole tappers but if you got the money you can (just incase the old one's wear out just like the one's you've just replaced.

Otherwise you can just leave your windows shut when the engine is running

 

I had the exact sounds and symptoms....I checked, and was 1.5 quarts low on oil. Filled it up, sound went away.

See if that could be it...

SR

 

I believe it's the hydraulic valve lifters noise which you hear after a start in the cold morning. If it goes away after a few seconds, it shouldn't be anything to worry about (assuming you are using proper oil weight). Lots of cars with hydraulic valve lifters do this.

 

Solid cam followers in the V8,not hydraulic,thank heavens.
My car did this for awhile before I replaced the plugs/wires,and ran only Texaco/Chevron premium.The valve(s) were sticking a little when the car was cold.

 

Thx for the correction. My other car has hydralic valve lifters and makes the same noise in cold morning so i assumed

 

The V8 SC400 motor has solid cam followers (buckets) with shim adjustment, each clearance needs to be carefully measured and shims added/removed to get the correct clearance.

This is a long tedious job, about 8/10 hrs of workshop time if all the followers need adjusting.

Toyota (Lexus) sell the individual shims in the UK for about £7 each, I am told they are the same shims as many other Toyota engines so shop around or grab a handfull from a breaker.