Questions and Answers
Ticking Subaru Legacy
Q. I have a 1990 Subaru Legacy. Recently the engine began making a very noticeable ticking sound that is annoyingly loud at idle. Any ideas what it could be?
Thanks,
David.A. There are two possibilities here. The first is that someone put a time bomb under your hood in which case you're on your own. The second, and more likely, possibility is one or more of the hydraulic valve lifters is bad. Now there was a TSB on this noise issued on 5/17/89 numbered 02-68-89 indicating a partially blocked oil passage in the rocker shaft as the cause of the noise.
This is something you can do yourself if you exercise care in removing the rocker shafts.If you do decide to try cleaning the shafts yourself, get the service manual and follow the steps in removing them very carefully.
If the noise is still present after cleaning the rocker shaft passages, then you will most likely need to replace the hydraulic valva lifters.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
