Questions and Answers

Mazda 626 Has Tapping Lifters Q. Dear Sir, I have a 1995 Mazda 626 with the 2.0 engine. The lifters in the car are sometimes noisy, more often than not. It seems to be getting worse. I have had three people look at it. One says the lifters are bad, one says the cams. The other says it is the oil pump too.

The Haynes manual says there is a defect in the oil pump on the earlier engines that allows air in the system, displaces the oil and causes the clatter. And to "see the dealer for a updated oil pump". To have this "updated oil pump" installed is about $900.00.

One technician told me to try the JB® Engine Treatment he had And if that did not help, I had a problem. Any ideas? I have posted it in your forum, so far I have gotten several responses. Would synthetic oil help? I wanted to drive it to Key West this July but I don't want to run it with the lifters hammering like that. Any ideas?

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Carl
Ranson, WV

A. There is an updated oil pump for that engine. But it would not fix the tapping in your engine. It is for a completely different problem.

I would try cleaning them out before doing anything else. Drain the oil and remove the oil filter. Install a new oil filter and replace one quart of oil with one quart of ATF. Drive it like that for about 3,000 miles. If they are still tapping, do it again. If they still tap after the third treatment, they will need to be replaced.

The ATF has a high detergent content and will clean out the lifters without hurting the engine.