Oil and OCI to Clear Up HLA Tick

[BrotherMichigan]

I've got a 2005 Hyundai Accent with about 130,000 miles on it that has a lash adjuster tick when cold. I've had the car since it was new and have always done 5,000 mile OCIs using conventional 5W-30 (various brands) up until about 100,000 miles, and 5w-30 Valvoline HM Semi since then. A lot of that ended up being city driving with plenty of short-tripping while I was in college, so I think things might just be a bit dirty and I was hoping to pull a some short OCIs to see if I can clear up the tick and avoid just replacing all the HLAs any time soon. I pulled the valve cover about 15,000 miles ago and things looked good with the exception of some varnish, but I obviously can't get into the HLAs to see what they look like.

My plan right now is to just do an oil change every month (about 1,200-1,500 miles with my current driving habits, which is a lot of stop-and-go in traffic on my work commute) with PYB for a few months and see what happens.

Are there any suggestions as to the oil or the length of the OCI, or does this plan sound like a good one?

 

[JC1]

That's too short of an OCI IMO. PYB is OK.

 

[SatinSilver]

I'd try PYB for 5k miles/12 mos whichever comes first.

 

[Ga129]

PYB will be good for this, You may want to even consider replacing 20% of the oil with MMO since you will be draining so soon. This would be good for cleaning and the tick probably. There's also no real downside to trying that if you ask me.

 

[meborder]

A can of seafoam or two cans of cd2 valve medic will get you there much quicker.

I'm not a huge fan of the "mechanic in a bottle" type fixes, but for sticky lifters (and hla) they do the trick.

Jmo.

 

[BrotherMichigan]

I might move it out to two months (~3000 miles) depending on how ambitious or lazy I'm feeling about it. I know I'm not getting every bit of cleaning I can out of such a short OCI, but I've got plenty of leftover PYB sitting in my garage already and I don't mind the ten minutes of work it takes to change it.

If I don't see any improvement after a while, I might go the MMO route and on to Seafoam as a last ditch effort (I'm a strong believer in the abilities of Seafoam, but dumping half a can of it in my crankcase gives me the willies, even if they recommend it.)

Thanks for the feedback.