Tappets

[cwgt93]

Quick question, my vr4 has noisy tappets on start up for a couple of minutes. I enquired about getting them sorted with my mechanic and he said it's a common fault etc.

Will the tappets cause the engine any damage in the long term or affect performance?

Thanks,

Charlie.

[adaxo]

No, they will tap but not damage engine, imo for a sake of about £300 its worth to get them changed.

[Erni902]

Yup I agree with adam, they will get worse and start to tap more and more, you can change the oil and quieten them down but it will come back and eventually not go away. Got absolutely threaders with them on the purple vr4 and got them replaced with camskill ones and had eurospec fit them. They fired the engine up to get the car out of the workshop and the noise was horrendously worse. They switched it off and by the time I had paid the bill and started the engine they were deadly silent. Never heard a peep from then since.

£218 from camskill and around £125 for fitting best £350 ive ever spent imo.

[cwgt93]

Yup I agree with adam, they will get worse and start to tap more and more, you can change the oil and quieten them down but it will come back and eventually not go away. Got absolutely threaders with them on the purple vr4 and got them replaced with camskill ones and had eurospec fit them. They fired the engine up to get the car out of the workshop and the noise was horrendously worse. They switched it off and by the time I had paid the bill and started the engine they were deadly silent. Never heard a peep from then since.

£218 from camskill and around £125 for fitting best £350 ive ever spent imo.

Ok thanks guys, they only do it for a matter on minutes on start up, so no affect on performance either then?

[Erni902]

No performance or damage issues mate, just sound like a bag of spanners when they get worse. Nothing worse than turning heads for the wrong reasons.

[Grid]

Try changing the oil brand you use for a cheaper fix first of all. For me Amsoil made the tappets go crazy. My VR-4 does NOT like Amsoil engine oil at all.

My N/A V6 Galant had tappets replaced, and after a couple of years they started making noises again so it's a bit of an uphill battle or an art (picking the right oil that won't make them go bad again).

[Nick Mann]

Thicker oil will often quieten them down. However thicker oil doesn't look after your turbos so well...

For me, a track day followed by an engine oil change is a pretty good way of sorting them for a while! /rally

[Davezj]

now that is good excuse to go to japfest II at rockingham on the 16th augaust

[Primus101]

Always check the oil level on the dipstick @ operating temp- oil has a fairly substantial expansion rate & if you check for the high mark on dipstick when cold, the expansion could raise the oil level into the rotating assembly & whip it full of air. That air ends up in your tappets allowing extra lash.