Hydraulic Lash Adjuster fail

[93forestpearl]

Someone didn't very good care of this car. I've had two others at about the same miles and they never had this issue.

Long story short, I could hear a HLA tapping, quite loudly actually. I tried a half-quart of tranny fluid for two weeks, and nothing. Drained some oil, and added a quart of Lucas, aka engine honey. Still nothing. I finally bit the bullet and dug in.


One HLA was stuck completely flat, and three others were stuck about halfway down. Lame. Change your oil, people. Good thing I have about two motors worth of HLA's laying around.


Total time was about 1.5 hours. I swear, nothing is easier to work on than a 2.2L Subaru.

[Legacy777]

I swear, nothing is easier to work on than a 2.2L Subaru.

Agreed.....as long as it's in non-turbo flavor.

[Imprezive]

non turbo is wack.

I still have the original HLA's in my engine w/ 250k on the clock

[93forestpearl]

non turbo is wack.

I still have the original HLA's in my engine w/ 250k on the clock

Non-turbo get's a lot better gas mileage, hence this being my beater.

[Bdub]

My 95 had a couple collapsed HLA's which I replaced around 210k. The car had been maintained all its life, so I suppose they just didn't stand the test of time.
I tried to re-oil fill them, but it didn't work, I just gave in and bought replacements. At like $15 each, it'd be pricey to replace them all.

[kimokalihi]

I dunno, the 22RE motor in my toyota pickup was a breeze to work on and had more room to get around it.

[93forestpearl]

If it was the driver's side, I probably wouldn't be as happy.


The one's I put in there were from a motor that had 240 on it, but they were nice and free when I bled them. I could have probably saved the old ones by soaking them in Seafoam for a while, but I have others laying around.

[AWD_addict]

NA daily driver and turbo project is the way to go.

Protip: Be careful when bleeding HLA's using small allen wrenches. Repeatedly pushing on the narrow wrench can cause your finger to loose sensitivity. Finger will regain feel within a couple weeks.

[Buffman]

You would have been better off using a synthetic 5w20 if you had attempted to clean it while on car in service. Trans fluid does nothing in terms of cleaning compared to regular motor oil, and a good 5w20 is what will work the best.

I agree these motors are pretty damn easy to work on. Except junk underneath the intake manifold.