2004 Subaru Outback noisy valve

GIBSONB

MEMBER
2004 SUBARU OUTBACK
4 CYL
4WD
MANUAL
10,900 MILES

I had my timing belt replaced in July and an incorrect thermostat was installed which caused the engine to overheat several times before the shop installed the correct one. Thr original replacemnt thermostat did not have a pin hole to allow air bubbles to flow through the system.
in nov the engine valves have become very noisy at startup but they quiten down after a few minutes.
Could the overheating have caused this probllem>

1 Reply

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

Hi there,

Thank you for the donation,

These engines have shim adjusters and normally don't rattle, with normal engine ware the valves bed deeper into there seats and this has the effect of closing up the valve clearances which does not cause a rattle, I would be thinking that it is an oil supply problem, first thing to do is have the oil flushed with a quality engine flush and replace the oil & filter, see how that works, I would also just have the oil pressure checked at cold start up just to see what is going on, as for if the overheating has any bearing on this problem, it is to hard to say, if the engine was some what older and with a lot more miles on it, there could be some additional stress due to the over heating, normally what you see is a blow head gasket when a thermostat is faulty or incorrect, if the oil supply is not a problem, I would just do a re shim and if there is no further sighs of overheating distress, I don't think that you will have a problem.

Mark (mhpautos)