Preventative $400.00 problem.

Preventative $400.00 problem.

Since the day I bought my car, Ive had a pretty bad ticking noise in my motor. Not at idle not at accelleration. It was odd Ive had 3 shops check it out and they couldnt figure it out. It would happen at about 55MPH-80. Only at steady constant speed. I would accellerate it would go away I would let off the gas it would go away. Just when I have my car going one constant speed it would tick tick tick.

Anyways my stepdad found this article regarding 93-02 prizms. (and of course the corollas)

GM

Engine noise, possible illuminated MIL
Some 1993-2002 Chevy/Geo Prizms, along with 2003-04 Pontiac Vibes, may produce a rattling sound from underneath the valve cover. According to GM, the noise may be accompanied by an illuminated MIL, and is the result of a bent or cracked oil baffle inside the valve cover just under the oil fill cap. The baffle is designed to help keep oil away from the PCV valve. When damaged, however, it will allow oil to be ingested into the intake manifold. That can lead to detonation, which is what causes the MIL to come on.
To prevent these needless complications, GM warns that you should never use heavy funnels or force anyfunnel into the oil fill hole of Prizm and Vibe engines. Doing so can place lots of strain on the baffle, causing it to bend or crack, and leading to the problems mentioned.


Source: Motor Magazine



Ive never used a funnel or forced any kind of oil gun into my car. But im guessing the previous owner has which has actually crumpled my oil baffle up and split it into two. Im hoping replacing my valve cover will fix this ticking problem. The only thing that really sucks is that the valve cover is a dealership part only costing at around $400.00 my company cost. Not like I can go to a salvage yard they all are probably pretty bent or damaged. So to help anyone out there just be careful bc owning the 1zz-fe motors means dumping ALOT of oil in it.<(that was a joke).



Pics of my oil baffle. Sorry i tooke these at night and its kind of hard to see but you can clearly tell how crumpled and bent mine is.









Hopes this helps anyone whit a similar problem.

My old 98 1zzfe is outside in the yard rusting. It has a valve cover if you want it for cheap.

So what's bent??

The piece that the arrow is pointing at is actually suppost to be square. mines crumpled and tucked in badly.

Oh... I got to check mine out then

Who uses a funnel anyway....the bottles are designed to be poured in a certain way.

I doubt anyone presses down on a funnel hard enough to bend that piece. My guess is those Jiffy Lube quick lube places that use the gas station pump like gizmos to fill the motor oil.

hmm thats interseting ill have to double check mine i just changed my oil yesterday but it doesnt look anything like urs i think. that sux that u have to cough up 400 bucks for a new valve cover. at least i know why that is there now

KryticKarma,

Here are pics from the old 98 engine's valve cover. PM me if you are still interested so I can get you a shipping quote. I would advise that you change all the gaskets especially the spark plug gaskets on this thing as they look worn.

mine looks somewhat, but not as bad as plus... so I guess I'm ok

Will that one work for the VVT-i motor also?

no.

vvti will work on non-vvti but non-vvti wont work on vvti.


or so says the guys from MWR

Damn..

hmmm...oh well. Judging from my valve cover, If I were you I would try to get a screwdriver or plier and pull back on that bent piece. It looks like it would be easy enough to bend back into place.

hmm at least the motor is really clean no chunks at least from the pictures. how many miles were on that motor b4 u dumped it

I am pretty sure that the bend is supposed to be there, at least in part. My baffle is bent and chipped. I looked at a friend's '03 corolla and his baffle is bent exactly the same way. It almost looks like it's supposed to be bent somewhat, like to keep oil from splashing when poured into the engine.

However, mine has obviously been damaged:
http://musserplayer.googlepages.com/BafflingBaffle.JPG

aluminum doesnt rust

is the block cast iron?

If you are talking to me, I had over 200k on that motor. It made ticking noise and vibrations at idle. Also, the motor burnt through 1 qt. of motor oil every 700 miles or so and I drive avg. 550 miles weekly.

Nah, block is not rusting. I was speaking metaphorically about it's abandoned state. The pulleys are rusting though.

Kryptic.

talk to the guys at Monkey Wrench Racing. if you send them your head they will recontruct it for the price of a stage 1 2 or 3 whatever you want.

I would.. but this is my daily driver. I have another car i can drive just gotta find a place to put the prizm then.. And also money is going out faster than its comin in. Bills suck lol

EDIT: Sry Plu for having you rip off the valve cover. If it would work for my car i would buy it..

^ i hear you about bills... I am getting my timing belt and water pump changed tomorrow and that would hurt the bank

nah don't worry about it. i was going to tear it apart anyways.

My car makes a ticking noise but it is only audiable when the windows are down and i am going like 20mph, although my motor does burn a quart of oil about every 1000 miles. I guess i should check it out.

Ok, so it turns out I've had a similar situation.

My baffle was bent and split and I had no idea why. It has been like this since the previous owner. Meanwhile, I've been getting a CEL for a bad crank position sensor, which my mechanic "cleaned." And the CEL came back for the same problem soon after.

I got lucky one time when I turned the car off and the engine stopped at a point where a moving part was poking through the split in my baffle:


Not good. So I bent the baffle upward and out of the way.

Finally I check out the stupid sensor myself, and find that it's covered in metal shavings. At this point all of the clues fit together: the baffle was bent into the path of a moving part, which ground away at the baffle producing a crapload of metal shavings. These shavings all got stuck to the crank position sensor (which is magnetic) and messed up the sensor reading.

I thoroughly cleaned off my sensor and removed the bent oil baffle, which was intended to keep oil from splashing around the engine compartment if I were to forget to screw on the oil filler cap.

If your baffles are bent and chewed up, this is probably happening to you. And if it has gone on long enough, the metal shavings and/or chunks have been damaging your engines.

I recommend that you remove the baffle as a preventative measure. Either that or do all of your oil changes yourself. I'm just glad my corolla didn't have any permanent damage.

Yeah, my mechanic used a crude but effective method of cutting as much of it out as possible. Anything to get that stupid thing out of there.

How does it keep the PCV from getting oil in it? Because that worries me. I may have to pull the valve cover myself and see how that works. I thought all my efforts resulted in the end of my problems. I would hate to spend $400 after all of this trouble.