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Ok so my HLA's keep going soft. Its the "top" ones on the passander side bank. I've blead them and reinstalled three separate times!! Every time, the rattle comes back in like a week. This last time, it came back within 2 days. Oh and i replaced all the HLA's last time around with "new" ones from a donor car. Still, same problem. What its going on? I hate the stupid noise, its embarrassing. Any help would be appreciated.

Mine haven't "gone soft" but they have gotten stuck before. The last time I was in there three of them were stuck at various points, with one bottomed out.


If you have some extras laying around, you could possibly soak them in a solvent to remove the varnish. Bleed them in the solvent to get it through.

yeah but i just replaced all eight hla's and again, just the top ones went soft. not stuck. So whats the chance that all 8 new hla's are bad too? I don,t think thats the case. This last time around i took the air hose with rubber tip, to all my "breether" holes on the rocker arms and blew them just to make sure they weren't clogged...

The problem has to be oil flow. I remember someone saying they found sludge build up that clogged the passage creating a flow issue.

Gotta ask...what weight of oil are you running?

10/30w this time around, with a quart of Marvins. I had a guy tell me it could be the oil pickup??

ericem wrote:The problem has to be oil flow. I remember someone saying they found sludge build up that clogged the passage creating a flow issue.

Where exactly should i check? Any ideas?

Florin1 wrote:10/30w this time around, with a quart of Marvins. I had a guy tell me it could be the oil pickup??

A problem with the oil pickup seems unlikely. If the entire oling system was that compromised, you would likely have bigger problems than just HLAs.

I'm not sure what you mean by 1"0/30w this time around", but these motors are far better off with 5w-30, as it has a MUCH easier time flowing through the valvetrain (and thus keeping the lifters cleaner). Maybe that's what you used before, but either way I can guarantee that 10w-30 will NOT help your HLAs at all.

Hmmm i was using 5/30w before, than someone on here was quick to point out that the turbos take 10/30 or 10/40...

Actually....owners manual states not to use 5w30 for "sustained high speed driving"

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/owner/097.jpg

However, with that said, I'd probably run some seafoam in the engine to clean out any varnish you may have. Typically you put it in the engine, run/idle/rev it a for a little bit right before you change the oil.

^ Done this on my last oil change. Should i do it again? 3/4 in the crankcase and 1/4 in the intake?

I wouldn't' think you need to do any more in the intake. If you have bad sludge, it may take a little more in the crankcase.

Have you had the oil pump off recently to verify whether the backing plate screws are not backing out?

Nope. Does that involve pulling timing belt and water pump?

Legacy777 wrote:Actually....owners manual states not to use 5w30 for "sustained high speed driving"

Sure...and I would have totally agreed with that manual back when it was printed 15-20 years ago. (Just like the way my 1966 Buick manual recommended 30w non-detergent oil, hehe). Motor oil has come a long ways since then...as evidence, the 2004 STi sitting next to me right now has an engine "for all practical purposes" identical to the old Leggies, yet it has "5W-30" molded into the top of the oil cap. I've been running it in all 5 Subarus (with mileage ranging up to 250K, 3 of those cars turbos) with no issues at all, and plenty of oil pressure during the hot summer months. Heavy oil causes unnecessary friction, drag on the oil pump, and generally accelerates engine wear.

Also, the whole problem with noisy "lifters" is far from unique to Subarus. GM and Isuzu in particular sent out TSB's regarding noisy hydraulic lifters for some of their models. Guess what the fix was? Flushing the crankcase (just like Josh suggested), and running Mobil 1 5W-30! You can say what you want about GM or Isuzu, but the whole scenario (plus the general operation of hydraulic lash adjusters) still applies.

JMHO, of course

well i can try some 5/30 again see how it does. As long as it wont hurt anything?

My thought about the lighter oil in newer engines is that their tolerances may be tighter, and also that the auto manufacturers made the change for better mileage.

I agree the 5w30 should be fine as well...

Ok i will give 5/30 a try again. I put a half bottle of seafoam today to see if it will change anything. So far, nothing. Its louder if anything.

I wouldn't waste another oil change. There is a oil flow issue to those HLA's. Have you tried replacing the whole rocker assembly?

i haven't tried replacing the whole arm. When i bought the new HLA's from the junk yard, i got them off a N/A car and i DID take the whole arm (shaft and all). The n/a arm looks a little different than my turbo. Will it still work?

When Consumer Reports did testing on oils way back in 1997, they found that 5w30 and 10w30 had the same high temperature viscosity. It was the low temp viscosity where they differed. That was over twelve years ago.

Always these hla's

The HLA's are under there. You need to remove the rocker arm assembly to get at the hla.

oh yeah i've done that like 4 times. That was just a picture to show which "top" hla's keep going bad. Its the top row for some reason. Don't matter which ones i swap around, after i bleed them, the top row goes flat again in a few days.

disassemble entire shaft unit. You might be surprised if you find some piece of debri clogging the tiny hold that feeds the hollow shaft. That was my issue. It would do it now and then, and one day it wouldn't stop. I bought two, thinking only two could be bad. All but two were bad. Got more and even the two new ones went soft. took whole shaft apart..

Found rock/debri, clogging hole, got it out, and they're golden now

One 10mm bolt on each end holds the end caps on.

I had a picture, but can't find it now. The hole that was blocked on mine was the end cap side that had the feed hole, it's in a rectangle cut , half way in the middle.

done that the very first time i bled them, but i did not really look in the shaft to look for debris. Should i shoot brake clean through the shaft? I'm afraid of breaking down the oil in the shaft, unless you don't think that will matter.

(side note, my Little sister was walking by and noticed the picture ^ and says "what is that? It looks like chocolate bears marching" I had to share. (she is 17)