Constant Clicking Noises From Engine.

Hi, my fiancee's mom has a '94 plymouth voyager with 185,000 miles on it. For a few weeks now, we have noticed clicking noises coming from the engine. First thing came to my mind was if there was any oil in it....checked that and its fine. It actually looks pretty clean for having the oil change done a month ago. So then I got stumped. Asked a friend of mine, and he had no clue either.

Looking thru some numerous forums, I came across some problems with engine clicking due to the lack of oil going into the valve train and plugged up oil passages. Could this be the source of the clicking? If so, is there some kind of oil additive that could clean it up?

I suspect you have the 3.0 Liter engine. If the clicking noise is loudest at cold start up and subsides after the engine warms, then this is a common complaint but not so much a problem with that engine. The clicking noise is coming from worn hydrolic valve lash adjusters. Over time, worn lash adjusters fail to retain oil as they should causing the rocker arm to bounce about as a bad shock absorber would. New oil replaces the lost oil when the engine heats up and the engine quiets down. This problem is more of an annoyance.

OK, my van has been doing this for a while after the van warms up. Would you suggest running a thicker oil? Normally I run 5W30 in it year round. Thanks

You can try that. I've found it is generally a good idea to use thicker oils in engines with many miles on them. It will help, but it is no magic bullet. You are dealing with worn parts.

If you are mechanically minded, a simple cheap solution would be to swap the rocker arms with ones of a lesser mileage engine from the junk yard. Alternately, a new set of valve lash adjusters costs about $50, but would have to be installed one by one for each valve and the rocker arms would have to be removed anyway to get at them. It ends up as an expensive solution for a bit of clicking noise when a mechanic is involved.

Yes, It is a 3 liter. But the clicking noise is constant. It doesn't go away even when the engine is warm. Speeds up when van accelerates and slows down to a consistant click during idle.

my 97 caravan does this same exact thing, and it is a 3.0 too. Hopefully it doesnt turn into a problem rather than an annoyance. Let me know if you fix it and how much it costs.

Unfortunately, a '94 Caravan with 185,000 miles is a vehicle that you want to take a long look at whether you want to spend money on.

I agree that the noise you are hearing is lifter lash, an engine with 185,000 miles is probably going to have lifter noise. Repairs would probably run in the $400 range, and would be approaching the value of the van.

I would drive it. Fixing the annoyance probably isn't worth the expense.