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Hi, I have a Subaru, L Series, sports wagon, 1.8L, 89 model.

And I'm due for an oil change, like a lot of the L series kicking around the place, I have a bomb under my hood (Aka, a ticking coming from my engine) and its REAL bad! But comes and goes?

So I've talked to a couple of mechanics, some say put a thinner oil in, some say a thicker to tone the loudness down?

The last mechanic gave me this to put in it:



and the time before that i got given this:



and both of them haven't helped, i also tried the stuff that you put in with your oil, that is suppose to get rid of it, and that did the complete opisite and ,made it worst than ever?

So the last mechanic i talked to said I have to put a real thick oil in? So whats the go?? Which one, and has anyone know any other ways of getting rid of this annoying noise?

Cheers

i recommend Coles brand vegetable oil

Those l series love to make ticking noise. I had a similar problem on a liberty but the lifter cleaner aditive your talking helped.
If you say it made it worst when you added the additive, i would put a thicker oil too.

If it was for me for my car, I would go for Castrol Magnetic, but if I didnt have a choice I'd go for GTX3... Its frustrating discussion because all subarus have different taste in oils, some dont like that oil some does...
Cheers
AP

cheers for the info guyph, so which oil would you recommend for a thick??
Cheers

Cheers AlpineRaven
So is the Magnetic a thick oil??

saxon.hall.00 wrote:Cheers AlpineRaven
So is the Magnetic a thick oil??

Nah its thin... I think its 10/40w
Cheers
AP

No probs, Well i have always used HPR oil in my cars. Like its been said above, all those engine are different, some prefer thick some light oil. Since that lifter aditive didn't help, i would try thick oil and If its thick i would go HPR30.

All you can do is try different oil and change it at every 5000 k's.

My liberty took one thick oil test, one light, and finally with normal HPR15 and the lifter additive its stopped. I then replaced with only HPR15 and she has been fine since.

In the worst case, your lifters/ tappets are ****ed and oil wont be able to solve the problem. but hey, im no mechanic, thats from my personal experience:D

Thicker oil might be a good band-aid solution for poor compression but for noisy lifters you may want to try increasing the oil pressure with a washer under the spring in the relief valve (which is well documented on here) or put a seal kit through the pump.