Hello everyone,

Recently purchased a 99 Caravan w/ the 3.0L Mitsubishi engine in it. I'm a fan of the vehicle. It needs rear brakes and a few other little things.

I've noticed that there is a good bit of valve train noise when I first start the van in the morning. I've been told by a few people that this is a characteristic of these motors but just wanted some input from others.

Van currently has 5w30 running in it. I had to take it in for an oil change as I purchased it from out of town and wanted to change the oil before driving back.

Cheers!

 

Hi,

I have a 98' with the 3.0L and 174,500 miles on it. I have the same ticking, it's the hydraulic lifters. It won't hurt the motor - the only annoying part is the ticking (mine lasts for about 5 minutes). You can add some Lucas oil additive to it if you want and it will reduce the noise or just save the $$ and keep driving it as is. Good luck, hope that puts you at ease.

Ian

 

Hi Ian,

Thank you for your response. I am glad to hear that you have not seen any adverse issues with this. I have been told this is a characteristic of Dodge motors but I can certainly say it is a bit unnerving. I thought about going with a 10w instead of a 5w on my next oil change and see if this change makes any difference. None the less I am glad to hear that you have not had any issues thus far. The van has about 133k on it so I certainly hope I make it to the same mileage as you without issue!

Anyone else have any experience with this? Just curious if this really is as common as the individuals I spoke with make it sound.

Thank you for the great reply!

Issakar

 

I have not had this problem with any dodge cars i've owned but it's common primarily from the wrong weight of oil.

Go with the correct weight of good quality oil,( personally i like mobil 1, it does burn a little less than a quart of oil every 3000 miles but fuel mileage has improved and it's good peace of mind.)

Install a good quality filter ( wix brand ) and the ticking usually goes away. ( usually 10w30 but check your owners manual).

I run chevron techron or seafoam in the fuel tank to keep the valves and fuel injectors clean, prevents carbon build up.

 

Thanks for your insight, I appreciate it. It does currently have 5w30 oil which is what I believe is recommended however I suspected the issue to be potentially related to the oil weight too. I had to have an oil change done when I got it instead of doing it myself (like i normally do) because I was out of town when I picked it up. I plan to try a 10w30 on next oil change.

Regards!

 

It could also be caused by bad injectors, stuck lifters all kinds of stuff GQ-Rod. I have had this issue before (still have the issue in my Durango, not in my GC) More than likely it is just a stuck lifter, use an oil additive to help with the noise. Everything should be a ok though. I had a Ranger with 300k miles on it that did this 1st thing in the morning too...still was running strong for 20k miles until I sold it to buy my durango

 

You're welcome, i've had this problem initially on a saturn sw2 and just now a ford aspire i'm working on for a family member.

Both times i did an oil change looked in the owners manual just to make sure i put in the right weight of oil, both times 10w30 was recomended.

Both times i did the oil change usually regular dino oil not synthetic intially and both times the noise went away.

Low oil level to the point where the oil light flickers can also cause this as well as no name brand oils on occassion.( i know this goes without saying)

Pennzoil does a great job of cleaning the engine in my personal experience, so i usually run that for the first 3000 miles then switch to mobil 1 synthetic ( i've read pennzoil can be bad on valves don't really know why) on family members cars and it's worked great.

There's also been a raging debate on other forums that if you use one quart of atf fluid ( any kind ) in place of one quart regular engine oil and drive for the last 500 miles before your oil change that the engine gets very clean.

Have not tried this yet but it seems to have worked for other members on other forums.

 

Very very true, some cars are prone to this more than others for sure. Oil additves like marvel mystery oil are great for freeing stuck lifters !

 

We are actually discussing/debating this on the Durango 1st Gen section. One of our DF members accidentally put ATF in his crankcase and was wondering how bad it was. Idk about the last 500 but 50-100 is pretty good. Has lubricating properties, but not as heavy as actual motor oil. But also has detergents that help clean the motor. It is an old school trick!

And I wouldn't do a full quart. Maybe half but that is just my opinion.

 

Good tips guys...ticking is annoying and a good cranckcase/head flush with an oil based detergent then a generous coating with a highly accredited oil additive is a good measure of internal protection. I have also added a 1/2 quart of diesel fuel to crankcase a couple hundred miles before oil change then change oil with new high end filter, 1 quart of additive and topped with a high grade oil.

This has given me piece of mind for all my high mileage vehicles...

Good Luck and Keep us Posted...

*****