Variation on ticking/HLA

[nimrod]

My '86 EA82 FWD wagon starts ticking randomly after it's warmed up. After it cools off, it ticks loudly when it's started, then it's quiet -- sometimes for days -- till the problem crops up again. I've searched other posts, read about Seafoam and MMO. Any ideas why the noise would spontaneously come and go? I purchased the car used about 9 months ago, 93,0000 miles on it, changed to Mobil1 10W-30 about 1000 miles ago. Could the synthetic be loosening junk and plugging something? The noise seems to be from the drivers side only. Is MMO compatible with Mobil1? Thanks for any thoughts or feedback!

[revbill]

On my Loyale (when it was running) the lifters would tick randomly. I used Seafoam and it seemed to help, but I suspect that replacing/resealing the oil pump is really what I need to do. (That is, after I fix the head gasket or cracked head I haven't had time to deal with.)

 

The ticking was weird, though. It would tick softly, then louder, then louder, then louder, then stop. Then it would be silent for a while, then repeat. It did it more when it was cold, but it would do it all the time, until the Seafoam did it's magic.

 

And I don't think there would be any problem using Seafoam with any kind of oil, as long as you don't drive around with it in there for too long.

[nimrod]

Thanks for the feedback. Forgot to mention that the original owner obviously didn't drive the car much, but still changed the oil regularly, as often as every 1000 miles. And....the oil on the dipstick looks totally clean.

[nimrod]

Ah!...just read a post that says the ticking could be caused by a leaky oil pump o-ring. That makes some sense to me. My oil pressure is good, but seems like maybe it was fluctuating more than normal when the ticking was especially loud....