What's up fellas,

I (my wife has) have an '03 WRX, with approximately 46,800 mi., we bought it new. The car has run flawlessly since day one, except for one issue.

On three different ocassions, spread out over the last year and a half, including today, I, or my wife would start it in the morning after sitting overnight, and It sounds like there's no oil getting to the lifter(s). It's a loud tick.

The first time I was outside when she started it, I told her to shut it off, then when it was started again, it was fine.

It ran without incident for at least six- eight months, did it on another ocassion when my wife was out shopping, and she again shut it down, and when it was re-started, it was fine.

On the two previous incidents, I checked the oil level, and it was full, I checked it today, and it was down about a half quart, as well as the fact that the noise was still there after it was shut off, and then re-started.

So I topped the oil off, revved the motor to between 3,000-5,000 rpm, (as suggested by my mechanic neighbor who seems to think it's either a bad lifter, or a gunked up check valve) and the noise went away. I took out for a nice high rpm drive, and it feels/sounds fine now.

I'm just wondering if this is something any of you guys have either run into, or heard about, (possibly a TSB for this) since the warranty (50,000) is almost up, and the chances of reproducing this noise for the dealer is pretty slim.

 

never had that problem ('02 WRX with 96,000 miles)

Are you using dino oil or synthetic?

 

Mobil1 Synthetic.

 

hmm, ok NM.

 

I've noticed a noisy valvetrain (until the car warms up) when running Mobil 1 5W30 in my '02 WRX. Folks more knowledgeable than I have suggested the Mobil 1 5w30 is not the greatest oil (?too thin?) to run in our cars. As I change oil at 3k miles/3-months (whichever comes 1st), I've moved to Valvoline 5W30 with much reduced startup noise....YMMV.

Brent.