Valve Clearance Adjustment - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

Just recently Ive noticed the engine is starting to make a little intermittent rattle whilst idling, the sound doesnt present itself whilst the car is moving or when its accelerating.

Now, Ive serviced this car since new every 5-7500km and I havent even looked at the owners manual or service booklets once till a few days ago.

Came as a surprise to me when I read that it needs valve clearance adjustments every 40,000km, I thought the 1ZZFE has self adjusting hydraulic lifters, I thought wrong.

Car is almost to 120,000km, never been redlined but it has been involved in a minor collision not long ago which Im sad to inform those of you who have taken an interest to the reliability of my 1ZZFE, other driver pulled out in front, couldnt stop in time, kapow, lucky no one was injured and airbags didnt go off.

Still drives the same though repair quality is so so, looks fine to the average person but recognisable if you know what to look for.

Is it worth doing the adjustments? Can I continue to keep driving just changing oils/filters without too much worry of dropping a valve?

I also havent changed the fuel filters either but have run higher octane fuel since new, do you think it needs the fuel filter changed too?

Cheers for any light that you can shed on my questions.

Fish, Im surprised you havent added something here. Someone is obviously reading this thread. News - Ive been quoted at least $400 just to pop the valve cover and to check and adjust a couple valve clearances, valve cover gasket has to be replaced too apparently, cant it re-used if no cuts or leaks?

If all 16 valves are checked, and require re-adjusting, the bill tops out to around $850. Would you think this is reasonable? Apparently both the inlet and exhaust cams have to be removed as well? How long does a valve clearance inspection take?

I just want to confirm what Ive been told is accurate. The car still drives fantastic and never an issue with powertrain, just thee odd intermittent tick on idle when engine is warmed up. Cold start sounds fine.

$850 for me is plenty of oil and filter changes, so if its lasted this long so far with no hiccups, Im inclined to continue driving doing servicing every 5,000km til I reach 200,000km and then get get the covers popped, suggestions? Feedback?

Still using 95 grade fuel and no signs of loss of power, may change plugs soon.

Hmm, I though I already posted in this thread - though there were so many valve clearance ones lately, might have gotten them confused. default_ohmy

If the valvetrain noise is apparent while underway - then I might supect a valve clearance issue, but if present during idle only - then I would attribute that to the inherent noisy nature of the 1ZZ-FE engine. The service procedure that the factory service alludes to is an audible inspection only - they don't even take the valvecover off.

As for $850 for a valve adjustment - hard to say, here in the states - a similar service might run a few hundred, which I would consider fairly pricy. On the 1ZZ-FE - you don't even need to take the camshafts out, unless the clearances are way off. Mine has just about 150K miles (~240K KM) - valves are still in spec. I do tend drive it hard - no babying the engine at all. But I did check my cleanrances at 60K miles and again at ~120K miles, just for grins. Both times, it took less than an hour, and cost be about $40 to do (cost of the gasket for the valvecover) - I already had the feeler gauges to check the clearances and a long handled socket wrench to turn the engine over as needed.

All the valve clearances were still in spec - my engine is also faily noisy at idle, lots of clacking and ticking noises from the valvetrain - but those go away once you move away from idle.

In case you are wondering - the specs for the intake and exhaust clearances on a cold engine are:

INTAKE: 0.15-0.25mm

EXHAUST: 0.25-0.35mm

The checking goes pretty quickly - as you can check 4 sets of valves at a time, ie.

intakes on #1 and #2 and exhausts on #1 and #3, turn crank 360 degrees, then you can check intakes on #3 and #4, and exhausts on #2 and #4.

Only time it gets complicated is when something is grossly out of spec, then you have to pull the cams out, and pull the lifter cups out and measure them with a micrometer.

I would keep driving the car as is - the noise aspect is more of a nuisance than an actual problem. If you are really concerned, then you can always check the valve clearances yourself - well within the reach of the typical DIYer. I tend to schedule mine right around oil changes - so that I can immediately change the oil afterwards. Just in case any debris has made its way in once I popped the valvecover off.

Guest matthew

thanks for all the good advice on here. I pulled the valve cover to replace the leaking gasket at 122k. so I checked the valve clearance and they are off, many of them being too tight, which i found strange. I would think they would get looser with time.

the tolerances are as follows

exhaust is supossed to be .010-.014 I have .008 .007 .009 .012 .007 .012 .013 .009

intake is supposed to be .006-.010 I have .009 .005 .007 .011 .010 .012 .008 .007

so about half of them out of tolerance. At $16- $25 a lifter I am wondering if it is worth doing the repair.

sounds like you pull the tensioner, hold the chain up with a bungee? pull the cams, mic the lifers and do the calculation, put new ones in , reinstall cams line everything up , new tensioner and put the cover back on.

the car is an 01 le with no rust

also if I decide to just put the cover back on... can I replace the chain tensioner by just pulling the old one out and putting the new one in, all externally?

advice?

My exhaust valves were the same way, little on the tight side. From the numbers you've posted, I wouldn't worry about replacing anything at this point - not enough variance to justify the time and expense. I'd recheck that first cylinder exhaust side in another 60K miles or so - just to see what it is doing. A used oil analysis would be a good thing to have in your back pocket - just to rule out excessive metal wear and the presence of any water/coolant in the engine.

As for the chain tensioner - that can be done without pulling the valvecover. Just have to listen for that metal "pop" sound when the plunger pops free of the retention hook on the tensioner. Just turn the crankshaft pulley, manually, with a long wrench while listening or feeling the tensioner. You should be able to tell when it pops loose, as the spring on it is pretty strong.

Lifter thickness is clearly marked underneath, visible once removed, and which was confirmed with metric micrometer. They're available in 35 different marked thicknesses of 0.02mm increments from 5.06mm to 5.74mm. Some original lifters are in 0.01mm increments.

I adjusted all 16 valves at or close to minimum spec at 100000 miles with 7 new lifters, and by switching the other ones around. I had a couple exhaust valve clearances nearly at maximum allowable clearance which could be heard ticking. The others were closer to middle of range, and all the clearances had increased slightly since my 65000 miles check.

I find it very hard to believe that you would have some clearances below spec range, and with so much variations. They were likely not properly checked, or not at exact camshaft position. You better use a metric feeler gauge as well.

http://madstyle1972.com/Repair/14/201lbc04/a040001.pdf

Mac Tools MG030 http://www.mactools.com/shoponline/product/tabid/120/p-318940-25-blade-metric-gauge.aspx

Matco Tools MG25 http://www.matcotools.com/catalog/product/MG25/25-BLADE-METRIC-GAUGE/

My Corolla is now making a lifter, ticking noise when temperature are around 50 degrees farenheit. However, it's only noticeable when accelerating in third gear. When I shift to fourth, the noise disappears. The noise is also not evident while in first and second gears. I don't think it's the transmission -- this is definitely an engine ticking.

Any advice and should I be concerned? The noise disappears when engine is fully warmed up.

My Corolla is now making a lifter, ticking noise when temperature are around 50 degrees farenheit. However, it's only noticeable when accelerating in third gear. When I shift to fourth, the noise disappears. The noise is also not evident while in first and second gears. I don't think it's the transmission -- this is definitely an engine ticking.
Any advice and should I be concerned? The noise disappears when engine is fully warmed up.

What you're hearing is piston slap, mostly under acceleration when engine is still cold... Mine does it too.

It wasn't like this last year. Should I be concerned, even though the noise disappears when the engine is fully-warmed? Long term effects?

And, why does it only do it in third gear (I know you also have a manual trans)?

Fully warmed up and no noise - should be OK. Might be only more noticeable in 3rd gear (resonance) - could be making noise in other gears, but you'll have to rev it up or down to find out where it is. By that point, would be masked by other engine sounds.

Pull the sparkplugs and read them - just to rule out anything funky going on there.

I think Honda's four-cylinder engines in Civics have less issues than Toyota's 1.8. Will pull spark plugs tomorrow and give update.

Spark plugs are fine. No oil or soot. Tan-colored, normal.