GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Sometimes a blind squirrel finds an acorn.

I've owned a 2006 Vibe for about a month now. I've noticed that there is a "tick" in the engine, not unlike you would hear from a stuck lifter (if the Vibe had mechanical lifters). It bothered me, but I couldn't find anything, so I lived with it.

Today I changed the valve cover gasket. I did this because the coils were soaked in oil when I changed the plugs (great car buy eh).

When I took off the valve cover, I noticed a thin piece of sheet metal directly under the oil fill cap was bent in toward the cam shaft. It was not only bent, it had a scrape in it where the cam had been hitting. My guess is that someone shoved a funnel in the oil fill hole and bent the sheet metal so it came in contact with the cam. All I did was press the sheet metal with my thumb to bend it back and presto, no more ticking!

Bill

Great work and glad it was a simple fix!

I remember hearing about this a few years ago but forgot all about it. Apparently it doesn't take much to bend the baffle.

Its always a great day when its something simple.
While in the area how, did the PCV valve look?

Nice catch. You really have to watch for this if you take your car elsewhere for an oil change. I used to get super great deals on oil changes making it really not worth changing my own oil in the RAV. One of the things I always check after an oil change is that little metal guard. They'll jam the oil hose into it so they don't have to hold it but this can obviously cause severe damage. Needless to say, I made sure to point it out and then educate in the least asshole way possible. haha

ColonelPanic wrote:Apparently it doesn't take much to bend the baffle.

Thanks, I had no idea what it was called. There is a thin sheet metal baffle all the way across the inside top of the valve cover. I'm sure it is there to prevent liquid from being sucked into the PCV valve.

Bill

Derf wrote:While in the area how, did the PCV valve look?

I could only blow air through it one way, so I'm going to say it looked good.

Bill

I have a tick on a Corolla xrs 2zz and also noted a scrape on the sheet of metal inside the oil fill cap. Op, when you say you bent it back, is that downward? The tick is pronounced with the oil cap off. Thanks. Just waiting for a cool down to take care of the baffle.

Edit: the tick is louder on the serpentine side and did try to push down on the baffle, but it wouldn't move. Will have to wait until the valve cover is off to adjust it.

Towards the sky. Away from the camshafts.

I've had my Vibe for about a month now as well, don't feel bad one of my coil packs had quite a bit of oil on it as well...did the same as you and put in a new valve cover gasket.

I did notice the metal was bent an assumed in to the from a funnel. That said, I never noticed noticed loud ticking or if I did I assumed it to be the typical loud Toyota injectors.

I'll take off the oil cap and pull the metal upwards and see if the sound changes.

Thanks for the tip!