About Engine Oil Additive And Engine Ticking Sound

[felixcat]

**I have posted this thread in clublexus.com and I want more advice and opinions so here it is.

After the car is started, I noticed there are not so big but easy to notice 'ticking' sound coming out from my 96 ES300's engine compartment (while open the hood and facing the engine, or sitting in the driver seat with door closed, I can NOT hear the ticking neither; I can only hear the ticking while standing beside the front wheels and it is quite noticeable and loud).

So I called my mechanic. Because he has just done some repair on my car and he remember the sound, he immediately concluded that this is caused by the engine's valve lifters (the so call 'valve clearance' problem), and he explain that he had repair many Toyota engines in his life，and such ticking sound is very common for an engine has such mileage (mine are 118k).

He said this problem would not harm the engine much, plus if I want this to be fixed, the cost will be expensive and not many autoshop can perform the repair well enough, so he did not suggest me to touch it (he said he can do it well but it will cost quite many hours of labour), so he let me just live with it. This mechanic is my good friend and he has nearly 30 years experiences of reparing engines, especially for Toyotas, Hondas and Nissians, so I trust what he said.

Now here comes the point: he also told me if I really mind such ticking sound, I can use an oil additive which brand name is 'Restore' (http://www.restoreusa.com/), he said this will work on the problem, although can not completely solve it.

So I want to give a try, with the bottom line 'it should not do any harm to the engine'.

I have done some research on the internet and knew some engine oil additive will harm the engine and accelerate the wear of the components, some other just make no effect. So my questions are:

1. Is there anyone has the experience of using this 'Restore' brand product? Any comments?

2. Does it require the mechanic with very experienced technique to perfome the repair well?

3. If I want get problem fixed within a reasonalbe cost, could someone recommend a repair shop in Houston (cauz I'm in Houston)? Thanks.

[Tsquared]

1) Restore is an addative package that adds CSL micro-particles that contain Lead (40%) dispersed uniformly throughout a Copper (60%) matrix with Silver. This is supposed to fill in the scratches and imperfections in the cylender walls to increase compresson. I have used it with great success on a 150K mile engine that was burning a quart of oil every 1400 miles. I was changing the oil every 5K miles and when I started using it the fuel milage went up about 10% and oil consumption dropped to being 1 qt low at oil change. It is a decent band-aid to increase compression and does help with higher milage vehicles providing they are not sluged up.

2) a valve adjustment may help with the ticking but you may end up with a top end overhaul - on a scale of 1 to 10 it is an 8 (disk brakes are a 3). It also may be the fuel injecters ticking - you might try a can of BG injecter cleaner to see if that helps.

3) IMO it is not worth doing on a 10 year old car with 118K on it. You would come out cheaper running it until it dies and put a junk yard replacement engine in it. Or load it up with Restore, clean the engine compartment, and detail the car and unload it and get something with less wear. Do nothing and you may not have any engine problems for another 118K...

Cheers,

T

[Toysrme]

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showpost.p...amp;postcount=3

Valve adjustments are normal, it's just that noone does them.

[felixcat]

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showpost.p...amp;postcount=3

Valve adjustments are normal, it's just that noone does them.

Thank you! Do you have an idea that normally how much will valve adjustment cost? Should I go to Toyota or Lexus dealer for this service, or I can go to some autocare shop like Firestone, Midas etc?

[Toysrme]

Toyota, or an independant mechanic. Not a midas, or Firestone. God those places have the worst people making the least money.

Atleast techs @ toyota get about $13 an hour out of college & can make 40K a year after a few years. Pretty much the same for good indy mechanics.

[SKperformance]

I woudl get a engine flush first to clean the valves and lifters.

Using seafoam before an oil change would be a good first start. the replace with a good synthetic oil of a 15w30 or 15w40 weight .

That produced a great result for my 98 LS

[05IS300]

The reason it costs so much is that it is so time consuming.You need to pull the shims out and measure them with a micrometer and get the clearance within factory tolerances by changing the shims that are different thickness.Some Toyota/Lexus Techs in Ohio can make upwards of $23.00 an hour and bring in $80k a year.

[steviej]

Some Toyota/Lexus Techs in Ohio can make upwards of $23.00 an hour and bring in $80k a year.

OMG, how many hours a week do they work?

($23/hour and a 40 hour work week comes to just shy or $48k per year.) Is there some sort of volume incentive added in?

steviej

[Toysrme]

No. Just lots of overtime. I don't know any dealer that wants people racking up overtime.

80K/y is getting into what aviation mechanical turbine tech money. Not car techs afaik.