GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Last winter I noticed when I drive my wife's 04 Vibe that when I start it up it sounds fine while idling. When I start driving it, if I accelerate normally, the engine will have this ticking noise. Sounds like a lifter ticking. But the noise will go away after the engine warms up.
Now what I do is drive slowly and don't accelerate too hard and keep the rpms down and the noise in very faint and sometimes I can't hear it at all.

In the summer time, the engine does not make the noise at all, and now that it is getting colder, I did notice the noise the other day again.

It only makes the noise on the first drive as it is warming up when accelerating when the temp is 60 or less at night and won't do it any other time.

Is it possible that there is a lifter that could be the problem? I might think a lifter has leaked down overnight and takes a while to get pumped up, but it doesn't do it in the summertime.

Do these even have lifters?

We use 5-30 wt oil as the book says.

The vehicle has close to 98,000 miles on it now.

Any ideas?

Pretty much a normal condition on the 1ZZ-FE. Solid lifter design, and as they get close to 100,000 miles, this is when the clearances seem to get a few microns larger at colder temps. Thermal expansion takes up that clearance, as the components warm. I have the same noise on 4 of the 5 Vibes in our family, and two of them are over 200,000 miles. The other one has less than 60,000 on it. Exact same condition. Noise lasts about 60 seconds after a cold (<50 degrees) start.
This could also be slight wear to piston pin/bushing, but there again, I have had no problems other than that initial cold start "ticking".
I am not concerned about it

I use 5W-30 too, but stick with Purolator Pure One oil filters, and a high mileage semi-synthetic(whatever is on sale) Valvoline, Castrol GTX, Pennzoil, and yes...even Quaker State high mileage. Change ours out every 7000 miles, and my daughters at 5000, due to dustier conditions on her commute, and more in-town driving.


Cheers!

Not to hijack your thread but have question on wife's 2003 Vibe.
~180,000 miles. Automatic. Wife's commuter car. Oil change every 3500 miles, overall a good commuter.

When cold starting sounds like noisy tappets. After a couple of minutes the noise subsides.

Any thoughts?

yep, I found that the valves on my 2003 vibe were pretty loud and the same goes for my 2009. Since valves can no longer be adjusted like in the old days, I'm not sure what the solution is.

Caretaker wrote:yep, I found that the valves on my 2003 vibe were pretty loud and the same goes for my 2009. Since valves can no longer be adjusted like in the old days, I'm not sure what the solution is.

My Haynes manual has a procedure for adjusting valve clearances, but it involves replacement shims or lifters (after removal of the cams). Not as easy as it previously was at all.

Thanks for reporting on that research. Is there any chance that these lifters and such are causing the grinding noise at cold startup? My "valves" are pretty damn loud and don't seem to quiet down very much even though I am only at 65,000 miles. Couple that with the fact that the camshaft actuator replacement did not solve my grinding noise issue.

lannvouivre wrote:

Caretaker wrote:yep, I found that the valves on my 2003 vibe were pretty loud and the same goes for my 2009. Since valves can no longer be adjusted like in the old days, I'm not sure what the solution is.

My Haynes manual has a procedure for adjusting valve clearances, but it involves replacement shims or lifters (after removal of the cams). Not as easy as it previously was at all.

If I'm not mistaken, the exhaust cam (?) is the only one that would need to be removed if the valves are out of adjustment. The intake (?) can be done inside the engine.

Caretaker wrote:Thanks for reporting on that research. Is there any chance that these lifters and such are causing the grinding noise at cold startup? My "valves" are pretty (removed) loud and don't seem to quiet down very much even though I am only at 65,000 miles. Couple that with the fact that the camshaft actuator replacement did not solve my grinding noise issue.

I'm not sure, since I'm not a mechanic. I should also probably mention that the manual only covers the first gen models. I think usually valve clearance issues involve loud ticking noises, though. You could check the clearances easily on a 1st gen, not sure on the 2nd gen vehicles.

zyzyix wrote:If I'm not mistaken, the exhaust cam (?) is the only one that would need to be removed if the valves are out of adjustment. The intake (?) can be done inside the engine.

The manual doesn't specify, but going by the picture that I took of my engine with the valve over off, the intake cam is directly over its lifters as well.