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Hello. I am new here and have some questions. I just bought a 1994 Legacy Sport with a 5 spd a couple days ago and have some questions. The car makes a rattling when the car is running. Sounds kinda like a diesel. Does this mean my engine is shot? The car has 218K miles on it. Car runs strong and doesn't overheat. Can it be the valves? Can the valves be adjusted? Has any of you ej22t guys come across this? I'd appreciate any input.

Does it go away when the clutch is put in?

Does it ever go away?

Does it sound like hollow metal, like a can being hit?

Is it really fast, like a machine gun or is it slower with a grinding sound?

nice car....mine made the same noise when i first got mine...check your exhaust heat shields. i finally figured out that was my rattle.

It never goes away, it increases with the rpm's. Sounds kinda like a rattling can, but definitely not like any heat shield vibrating. It sounds like the motor. Do these cars have adjustable valves or not? I had another friend take a listen and he thinks its the valves. I can try taking an audio clip with my phone, but i don't know how it will sound. And it doesn't go away when i push the clutch pedal, and yes it kinda sounds like a machine gun.

No they are hydraulic. I suggest you check the oil and do a oil change ASAP make sure it is filled correctly. Should take 4+ L.

A bad HLA can make alot of noise too.

Very first thing i did was an oil change. Put in 4 quarts. Should i put more? The previous owner put more than 4 but it still rattled. What is a "HLA"? Sorry, I'm bad with acronyms.

Hydraulic Lash Adjuster

ahhh thank you. Can that be adjusted?? Thanks

no

search it up on this forum "bad hla" you can check them by removing the valve covers and making sure they pump.

ericem wrote:search it up on this forum "bad hla" you can check them by removing the valve covers and making sure they pump.

Thank you sir. Will doing a compression check tell me anything?

Probably not about the problem. HLAs are the adjuster. If it's them, it would be a rapid-fire, almost machine gun sound. The valve adjusters are filled with oil under pressure to keep the valve clearance from increasing over time. If the car sits for a while, the oil has been drained out for a while, or possibly if the oil is really old, they can get air in them and fail to do their job. The excessive clearances is where the noise comes from.

Rattling can sounds like heat shields still, except that you said the sound doesn't go away. Sometimes they look good and feel OK, but can still be loose enough to rattle under way. But the sound also usually goes away when the engine is under load, so that's probably not the problem.

Hmm....still kind of hard to tell from the video. It may be lifters. But could be something worse.

I'd probably start with lifters since it's the easiest and least expensive.

like replacing the lifters? How much is that in parts? I can do labor myself. Want another video? I can take another, rev it higher or longer? My phone only does 30sec at a time.

Well, I'd start by removing the lifters and bleeding them to make sure they are not collapsed and hold oil pressure. That is something you should be able to do yourself.

That's valvetrain noise. Ususally from sitting for a long time... The HLAs drain out and it sounds like someone filled your heads with ball bearings. Add some (1/2 qt) Marvel Mystery Oil or Auto trans fluid to the crankcase oil to dilute it a bit, and take it for a good hard drive, they should pump back up... it may take a few days. One of mine was clanging like that for almost a week after engine re-assembly, but it did go away eventually. Give that a shot before you tear into the heads.

Yeah, sounds like HLAs, but not all of them.

Yeah the car did sit like two months i think. And yeah the sound seems to be coming from the passanger bank. So put some tranny oil into the crank and drive it hard? It won't hurt anything?

I wouldn't recommend tranny fluid, personally, and certainly change it as soon as it quiets down if you do. And if it doesn't work, you still should do an oil change. Maybe try the Mystery Oil or, if you use synthetic, Mobil 1 0W—that stuff pours out like water. If it doesn't clear up after driving around for a few minutes, you'll probably want to bleed the lifters. If that doesn't work, some of them might be bad. Either way, it's not too hard a job.

evolutionmovement wrote:I wouldn't recommend tranny fluid, personally, and certainly change it as soon as it quiets down if you do. And if it doesn't work, you still should do an oil change. Maybe try the Mystery Oil or, if you use synthetic, Mobil 1 0W—that stuff pours out like water. If it doesn't clear up after driving around for a few minutes, you'll probably want to bleed the lifters. If that doesn't work, some of them might be bad. Either way, it's not too hard a job.

Is there a write up on how to bleed the lifters? And how can i tell if they are bad? Thanks

The jist of removing the lifters is you need to remove the valve covers, there are three bolts. Once the valve cover is off, you will see the rocker arm assembly, that needs to be removed, and once that is out, the lifters are in the rocker arm assembly. You remove the lifters and feel if they are solid or squishy. They should be solid. If they are squishy, they have air in them.

To bleed them, take a 10mm socket and put the lifter in it, and turn the socket upside down. Pour a little bit of oil in the bottom of the socket. There is a little ball check valve in the bottom of the lifter. Use a paper clip or something similar to depress the ball and compress the lifter, allowing fresh oil to be sucked in and any air to be removed. Repeat this process until the lifters are solid feeling. If a lifter does not become solid feeling after bleeding, that lifter is bad. It's helpful to bleed the lifters over a little plate or something to catch the excess oil after bleeding.

Reinstall the lifters in the rocker arm assembly, and reinstall the rocker arm assembly to the head, and put the valve covers back on.

There are some other threads that may have pictures. I'd suggest searching.

Hello, again. So I changed the oil to 3 10/40w Castrol Synblendi think its called. Put a quart of Marvel's mystery oil (total of 4 quarts in oil), i couldn't find castrol formula r synthetic at 5 different part stores, changed pcv valve, spark plugs and wires and added seafoam to crank, intake, and gas tank. Cleaned out the pcv hoses and turbo hoses. I managed to brake the "F" pcv pipe. That thing will be a pain to remove. The bottom clamp i cannot reach. Any ideas where to get another"F" or should i make one? My boost gauge vacuum line also crumpled so i need to rig a new one. Old one was some kind of hard plastic or something. When i was on my parts run at the 5 different stores, i could not find silicone hoses. Any idea where i can find some? I'm wanting to change my vacuum hoses to fresh ones. Oh and btw STILL NO CHANGE in my RATTLE. >:.( So i shall try the valve bleeding tomorrow and hope that cures it. I'm starting to worry. Thanks to all the suggestions.

You can try and get another F pipe from someone on the board in the parts shed, from a local junk yard, or buy a new one from Subaru.

PCV system part numbers.

http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn39 ... 2t_pcv.gif

I replaced all my PCV system. What you need is long need nose pliers and you need to remove the intake pieces. Just be sure the engine is somewhat warmed up before doing this. Also when you go to reinstall everything clean the parts nicely, there is most likely alot of blowby. It is important you use OEM parts ESPECIALLY THAT PCV valve! Here's some pics of what need to be removed to get to the clamps. Will require a wrench to remove both bolts from the turbo, to remove that 90* elbow. Then you have plenty of room. Replace all the rubber that the F pipe attaches too.

http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j202/ ... 009610.jpg

Scroll through my pics. You can see I RTV'ed my pcv pipe back together previously because mine broke to haha. Surprisingly it held together and was air tight. But I still felt better knowing I replaced everything with new parts.