ok so i woke up today and i started my car up and i heard a ticking sound so i shut it off and i was low on oil about 1 1/4 qrt. so i added oil and it still ticks a lil not as bad tho.. should i check the lifters or what should i do i shut the engine off as soon as i knew what it was the engine wasnt on more than 30 seconds. thanks

 

anyone have any idea if i need to worry or not???i have a parts car but dont know about howgood the head is so i dont wanna get into that. will i b ok is all i want to know

 

no no no bro your fine.keep your oil changes and check the oil every now and then but its a 4-clyn so its going to tick a lil.myne does and so does my buddy.you need oil if it ticks louder when on the gas.

 

well when i was reving it up by the throttle cable i could still hear the tick and all but it runs fine and dont smoke. it does need a oil change bad tho

 

It's the lifter tick. I know people who have driven thousands of miles with it. Some people say switching to a synthetic oil took care of their problem.

 

now hold on cause i heard a tick and switched to synthetic and it did silence a little.what i would do is change you oil to synthetic cause its better and you should be fine.everyones neon should do it a little.now if you rev it up and the ticking gets louder and quicker than you need oil bad.maybe a leak or just bad oil.hope this helps

 

I hate to revive an old post, but no one responded to me. I am having almost an identical problem. it got REAL loud the other day, so i stopped driving it. I dont think its just lifter tick but it may be. can someone help? please. any advice anything to check.

 

if you really feel bad about it you could replace the lifers. Another thing is too keep on pace with the oil changes. But yeah my neon ticks a lil too

 

I think you guys are talking about the rocker arms aren't you? Overhead cam engines don't use lifters. A suggestion I have is to change your oil with dinosaur style, but put a quart of atf in place of on quart. Run it for ten miles or so then change again with full synthetic. That ought to shut it up. My 96 doesn't tick at all since I did that.

 

DOHC have valve lash adjusters. I have replaced them in mine & did not fix the ticking. So here is my problem the car was running fine except for the annoying ticking. So i ordered new mopar rocker arms installed them in the car & it will not start now. The car is getting fuel & spark but will not start. Ever hear a car that has no compression, thats what this sounds like to me. I have also replaced 4 pistons with sealed power pistons, new rings, all new gaskets, also replaced top O2 sensor, TPS, Temp, & IAC sensors are all new. Also has new plugs & wires. Any ideas to why it wont start. I am almost sure the rockers will fix the ticking if i can ever get it to start, going by what the mechanic at the mopar garage said. This has been the worst vehicle i have ever worked on, fix one problem 2 more pop up.