Strange noise coming from the engine, help...

[slaine]

Hi there, good afternoon.

I hear a noise coming from the engine that I dont know what it is or where it's coming from...
I go into the car, start it, still stopped with no gear pulled, and I can hear straight away this noise coming from the engine.
It's something like a permanent tac tac tac tac tac all the time, not really loud at all, but I can hear it on top of the normal/usual noise the engine does in the background, not sure if I've explained this clearly...
The car is 53K miles, 2001 petrol, and was last serviced at 49.500 miles.
Any idea what could it be? thanks for your help

[Nick VR4]

Sounds like your hydraulic lifters (Tappets)

Do a search plenty of info regarding it its common on our cars

[slaine]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the info, I did a search and it looks like many people also had this problem, I just cant believe it's happening in my car already, is just 53K miles...
What happens if I dont fix it? and if I decided to buy the lifters, is it too dificult to change them myself? I have the service manual, dont know if there is any guide in it about this...my engine is a 2.0, thanks for the info and help

[SGHOM]

...
What happens if I dont fix it?

nothing. It's just one of the 'quirks' of the galant.

[Nick Mann]

The Grey Head speaks the truth!

The only real downside of the problem is the noise. If your car has only just started to do it, try an oil flush and change. Use good oil afterwards. Hopefully that will allow the adjusters to adjust properly.

[bradc]

Change the oil using good quality synthetic and it should go away for 5-7000km. When it starts making the noise again, just consider it the built in mitsi way to tell when your oil has gone bad and you need to change it.

[BraindG]

i normally get rid of it by flushing oil, putting some fresh stuff in, run it for a couple days, buy a new old filter and oil, then flush again replacing the oil filter this time.

[slaine]

Hi there, good afternoon.

Well, once more, many thanks for all your info and help, greatly appreciated

I'm waiting for a few parts to arrive to this place in Bridgend where I used to buy everything for my last 2 cars, oil and petrol filters, sparks, battery, ignition leads, ground cables, and then I'll buy oil as well.
I always used before in all my cars MANN filters, and Castrol Magnatec oil, also BOSCH spark plugs, but for this mitsu I've bought Iridyum NGK's spark plugs, I hope they are also good....
The battery, I ordered a BOSCH AsiaSilver, BOSCH are the ones I've been also using all my life....
Any suggestions on the parts? I hope once I've changed everything on it it'll run a bit better, and quieter... til I install the air kit that just arrived this morning from the States that's going to be goooood