yaroE420

Hello everyone,

My car started experiencing ticking lifter noises. I am new to this forum and i am concerned how much approximately that would cost to replace the lifters.
If you have done such replacement, can you tell me here, how much that was for you?

Thank you

jimmydagreek

Depends on what's causing the "ticking." I experieced this in my E420 and had to replace all of the lifters because they were sticking. My MB mechanic recommended that I first try switching to synthetic oil to see if that would do it. Although they quieted down a bit, it was still enough noice for me to have them replaced. This job is not cheap, especially if you don't know any good MB mechanics. I don't remember how much it cost me but it was up over $1000 bucks to get them replaced, maybe even close to $2000. If you are in the Los Angeles area I can recommend a good mechanic.

SmokeSilver

Have 97 E420 and had the ticking problem. It was a simple hydraulic lifter oil valve guide. The little caps at the ends of these guides are made out of plastic (used to be metal). They mechanic listened to the motor to determine (guess) which guide it was. They replaced the 2 cent piece and charged me about $400 (mostly labor). Ticking gone. This is a very common problem with these motors.

Marvel Mystery Oil will make it go away for a while if you don't want it repaired right away.

Good Luck!!!

jimmydagreek

You're lucky to only have it be the plastic valve guides. My lifters were sticking so bad and had so much wear that they needed to be replaced, not all of them but while they were in there I had them replace them all along with all of the guides and then started running synthetic oil. Car never ran better!

hubert

My 99 E430 does the same thing when i dont drivee it for a week(ticking noise when starting for like 2 sec) went to a dealer they said its normal if the car is not driven for a while.

jimmydagreek

Yeah but your ticking goes away right? Didn't happen for me and I drove around with that annoying ticking noise for weeks before I had it repaired and it only got worse as I went.

hubert

Yes Jimmy it goes away, for a minute i got scared plus i have Kleemann blower on my car so dealer probably would not touch it.

jimmydagreek

Hey, don't forget to hit Alex up to see if he can get you that rear bumper mang!

hubert

Thanx Jimmy.

tony

My '97 E420 had the ticking. It is a common problem in the E420. Do a search for oil tubes. It is caused by broken oil tubes that carry oil from one side of the valves to the other. When the tubes break, the lifters aren't lubricated. If corrected quickly the lifters will be fine. Mine stopped ticking once they replaced all 16 tubes and the lifters have been quiet for over a year. The labor is expensive, but the oil tubes are not.

The Godfather

To make the lifters quiet do the following:

Dumb 1 quart of your engine oil. Replace that quart, with a quart of ATF fluid... yes automatic transmission fluid. Run the car for 500 miles. Then do oil change. Voila, no more sticky lifter. The ATF fluid acts as a detergent. Did it in my dad's 2000 E320 and fixed it.

Maja216

Hey Doc good trick I dont have a ticking noise but if I get one I'll try it for sure.

MARK CUMMINS

Dumb Transmision Fluid?

Great Idea...Where did You Learn That one?

jimmydagreek

Where do you get "Dumb" transmission fluid??? j/k Mikey, lol. Very interesting though, I'll have to tell my buddy about it for trial on his E320...

OceanView

Had similar experince recently.
Car sat for 2 weeks and when I started it, I heard a ticking sound.
Turned out to be the water pump.

Big J

very interesting topic, but do you still need to have the valve adjusted? i have a 99 e430 .....

king_j

97 e320 62000 miles

at 50k miles, the headgasket went, now i notice a ticking noise coming from the driver side of the car.
the noise is mostly at idle and very consistant.


would this be a valve related noise?

phatstyles

Get Auto-RX its a special solution to clean up the engine. Check it out.

leonb

Is this recommended? How long can one drive with the ATF - can it harm the engine if driven for more than 500 miles (say 1000 - 2000 miles).

I had a constant ticking sound which was diagnosed by the Merc tech as lifter noise. They replaced all the lifters, but it did not solve the problem totally. Now, when I start up the car, I get ticking about 50% of the times. The ticking stays for about 30 minutes, then it disappears. I drive a 99 C280.

I really need some help here, as I dont want to waste any more money and the ticking is driving me crazy!!!

jimmydagreek

I've never heard of the ATF method before reading Mike's post so I can't verifty that. I had my lifters replaced then ran Mobil1 oil and that fixed it for me. Are you running fully synthetic oil? If not then if I were you, I would immediately go and get a Mobil1 oil change. If you are and you also had the lifters replaced, then I would go back to the mechanic and tell him to do his job right! Good luck...

cragigotgame

I have that noise sometimes too. Its not the engine, I dont know what the heck it is.

Ala-benz

If the ticking is not the engine, listen closely to your map light/sunroof control area. There is a little motor inside that assembly that I think is some kind of cooling fan or air sampler for the climate control. When it goes bad, it ticks. Damn thing about drove me nuts on my 97 E420 I used to have until I located it. It was an expensive little bugger at the stealership ($80 or so).

cragigotgame

I can see the thing in the engine that is making noise I just dont know what it is, or what it does. But I know it not coming from inside.

jimmydagreek

You can see the thing making the noise, lol. Well, describe it; does it look like a fan or???

NihalS65

jimmy, i just bought a 97 e420 sport. the previous owner said she had taken the car in last week because the cylinders were misfiring. had all the coils replaced and oil change done with fully synthetic oil. car runs great but now the car is making a knocking noise. im thinking about running the quick fix thing with either mystery oil or ATF. but what do you think?