Do not flush oil from a VR-4 engine.

[Brind]

Chatting to the service people and the Ralliart technician, we asked if they could flush the engine to make sure the ticky sound stays at bay.
The reply was, sure if that is what you want us to do? however we do not recommend doing it on this particular engine.

We asked why and it's apparently because the turbos are so small and their oil feeds that it is possible to clog the pipes although not guaranteed to happen, it is a greater risk.

So.. there you go.

[Nick Mann]

Not a mechanic, but this sounds like a strange opinion. Surely flushing oil through means there is less chance of something getting gunged up? It sounds like they are saying: 'You could have crud in your oil, so lets not do anything rash like try to remove it.'

[Brind]

The 'flushing oil' is thicker than that used for normal running use, and that's what can clog.

This could be thinner, this isn't what I was told.

[SGHOM]

when you say flushing oil ? do they mean draining the oil, adding fresh "flushing oil," & then draining that & refilling?? AFAIK, flushing oil nowadays, is just 1/2 a small bottle of very thin addative added to your exising oil, run for 30 mins, & then drained & refilled. thats what I've had done to mine, twice, with no problems.

[Kieran]

Hang on... :stop: I think you're up the wrong tree here people.

Right.

GENUINE flushing oil is as thin as p1ss... You drain your oil, replace it with this and run the engine for only a few minutes. Genuine flushing oil has very little lubricant property to it, but a strong additive base. It's designed for loosening crud, which is carried to the sump by the flusing oil. It's rare these days.

Most oil flushing is done nowadays by an oil additive. You add these to your existing oil, run the car for about 15mins then drain and refill with normal oil. They work by altering the viscosity of the oil (making it thinner) and they're full of detergents, so again, they're designed to loosen crud and get it back to the sump.

I think what the ralliart technician is getting at is that the turbo oil feeds aren't very large in diameter, so if a piece of loosened crud from elsewhere (say the cylinder head) found it's way into the turbo oil feeds, it could lodge in them and restrict oil flow to the turbos, which would starve the impeller and turbine bearings.

[Brind]

Yep Kieran is correct.

[Nick Mann]

But surely if you leave the crud to build up it is eventually likely that this will happen? Is it not better to try and keep everything clean in the first place?

[Brind]

We do, which is why we change oil every 4500 miles.

[Nick Mann]

So how does the tick occur then? Has it only occurred in cars where the servicing has been neglected?

[zedy1]

ive always flushed my oil and never had a problem

[Brind]

It's just a known Mitsubishi engine phenomenon that has been around for years.
It is said that air gets trapped under the lash adjusters and it's 'fairly safe'.. which I find hard to believe since the sound is the same as a duff ticky camshaft.
I had an almost brand new Mitsubishi Space Wagon thing (I think it was) when I sent the VR-4 back when I first got it because it had the famous tick which I never heard before buying the car, so I sent it back to them. Anyway, the Space Wagon thing had only done about 4000 miles and that was ticking exactly the same as the VR-4 was!!!

Mine rarely ticks now, but since it spends much more time sitting on the driveway it some times tries to tick but I put that down to lack of oil from sitting in one place for a long period.
When it has tried to tick, I instantly shut it off and restart the engine and it's fine.. told the technician about how I did that today and he was in agreement that it's a good idea.. I only tried it out of curiosity but it works every time without fail.

[Nick Mann]

Fair enough. I had the ticking on the V6-24, it got steadily worse between oil changes, but that only had an oil change every 9000 miles. I have not heard anything from the VR4 yet! When I do, I'll try the engine off/on thing.

[haydar]

The ticking has nothing to do with frequency of oil changes. I changed my oil like clockwork and always went for the expensive kind but my car suffered from the ticking for years. I finally ordered a complete new set of lash adjusters direct from Japan and this has solved the problem (as least for now).

[Dmac1969]

My V6-24 Auto does this now and then as well , noticed it yesterday in fact! Does it damage the engine at all??? I know it sounds embarrasing , like a mk2 cavalier with a totalled camshaft! Its a shame coz usually the engine is lovely and smooth , and it has a F dealer SH and 'only' 78K miles on it.

[Brind]

I know it's very embarrassing! Galants athough don't cost the earth look superb and they give that expression all of the time and for it to tick like a rattly old A reg Fiesta is the last thing you want.

As for damage, a friend of mine has an old 2 litre Galant, the small square shaped one?? J reg I think.
His ticks all of the time and has done for years, he has touched nothing on the car apart from a few bulbs and very basic usual stuff! :rolleyes5 pulls as strong as it did and it's around the 100,000 mile mark.

[wirdy]

Agree with previous posts on this subject....flushing oils are not generally needed with the high detergent content of modern oils. Especially the quality oils we need to use in our engines.

I think I'm to oil changes what Kieran is to car cleaning........perhaps I'm a bit OTT, but I change my own oil every 3500-4000 miles this way:

1. Take car for a 15 min run.
2. Put 500ml of white spirit into engine (reason - a lot cheaper than engine flush additive ( hint-take a look at the COSHH data sheet for 'nitrox' engine flush, you'll find it's white spirit with a bit of mineral oil added. I suspect they're all based on the same ingredients)
3. Run at idle for 10 mins. (oil is thinner, so don't want to spin the turbines by blipping the throttle excessively)
4. Drain oil.
5. Fill with cheap 20W50 - I use 'Formula 20W50' £2.99 or cheaper from ASDA, TESCO, etc.
6. Run at fast idle for 10 minutes.
7. Drain oil and change filter. (you'll be surprised at how much dirt the cheap oil clears)
8. Put on new filter and fill with decent oil.

Haven't had a noisy tappet yet. Perhaps I'm lucky, but I've used the above routine on all my cars and have never blown an engine or had a noisy tappet (Ford CVH especially)

I'm changing the engine oil (Castrol RS); gearbox oil (AMSOIL Synthetic); transfer box oil (AMSOIL synthetic); diff oil (Standard EP) and anti-freeze (Halfords 5 Year advanced) tomorrow, so she should be running good as new tomorrow evening.
Does anyone know the coolant capacity (with thermostat closed)?

Hopefully the new gearbox oil will improve the 1st to 2nd shift when cold, it's like the 'box in my old XR4 at the moment - you initially need to wait a little for the synchro to spin up, but it's fine after a couple of minutes. Will let the forum know if AMSOIL synthetic cures this (just for the minority of manual 'box owners!)

[SGHOM]

good info Nige !! but I wouldn't have owned up to owning a XR4 !! :$ :$

[Brind]

Great info!!

I've blown up a Ford 1.8 CVH engine.. piece o ****e engine!!!! very smooth but what a temperamental heap! kept spewing oil until it did it one time for no reason and ran itself dry in seconds and well... bye bye.

[wirdy]

good info Nige !! but I wouldn't have owned up to owning a XR4 !! :$ :$

Hey, I was only young (20) and it was the only thing with a V6 and 150 bhp that I could afford to insure!!.

Perhaps my oil changes did some good....I sold the car (with 156,000 miles) to a RAF pal in 1996, he kept it for 3 years and sold it to a guy in Aberdeen (with 189,000 miles). As of November last year it was still cruising around Aberdeen, not bad for a 20 year old car with over 200,000 miles now probably.
Hope the VR4 is still going in 2017!!

[zedy1]

shouldnt be a problem i drove a 1988 6g last year and it was still going like a new (well newish)