Noisy Carina/carona

[TOYOPET]

: Hi out there, from way down here in Nw Zealand, hopefully this is in the right area, i have a 1994 Corona EX 2 litre auto, 3SFE , in your area it would be a Carina. reading some of the discussion on your forums, i see a few on the noise coming from up top in these motors, like tappet rattle, sounds like a diesel, well mine has this problem as well, damned annoying, as otherwise its a great car, its travelled 127000 ks, but being a Japanese import, where they are known for winding back speedometers or fitting replacements to get more money, mileage is always suspect. but anyway, the noise sounds like tappet rattle, but the motor as im told uses shims, and are non adjustable??. the local Toyota agents recently replaced the Cam Belt, and diagnosed it as Injectors pulsating, im not sure that is corect, as my trusty stethoscope pin points the noise as coming from the valve train,or a least in that area, mainly at idle, certainly a flick on the accelarator cable seem to quieten it down, the car idles like a diesel or at least sounds like one at idle, is there any Toyota mechanic out there that has had experience in solving this, ive tried injector cleaner it dont work, like i said its more like tappet rattle to me. also the idle is a bit rough, not bad but not ideal. plugs are nice light brown, no signs of oil or rich mixtures, the engine uses no oil, and doesnt smoke,and performs quite well, any advice on curing or quietening the monster would be appreciated , thanks

[Saltrampen]

Although I have never personally tackled valves on my Toyota.

(I leave that to someone who has all the equipment!)

It is worth getting the valve clearances checked (1 - 2 hours labour in the UK), this will tell you once and for all whether the shims have worn. Although non adjustable, they should be replaceable as they are only metal discs. It will probably be a very labour intensive job.

If you get a very accurate set of feeler gauges, and you have a Haynes manual

you could check the gaps yourself.

Hopefully someone out there who has done a complete engine rebuild can help you more..

-S