I have a 2000 accent with 88,000 miles whose engine has been pinging for a while (off and on for a few years actually). I started using higher octane fuel and that helped, but the engine light started giving all kinds of signals that were getting expensive to fix without solving the problem. One signal said I needed a new MAF sensor a while back, but I didn't do it then. Now that I have a little money, I take the car in and the mechanic says the engine cylindars have problems and I'm looking at a valve job. Does that sound right to anyone? Did all that pinging finally take its toll on my engine?

The mechanic also said recommended that I wait "as long as possible" before doing the job because it would be so expensive and I may as well wait to do it. Is it going to be that much more expensive if I wait longer?

Thanks

 

Hi riznob481,

You mentioned that the engine was pinging. Do you mean that you were hearing a steady tapping from under the hood, say, immediately after you started the engine and it was idling or continuously while driving? If so, then this would mean that one or more of the hydraulic lift adjusters on the valve rocker arms has gone bad. Hydraulic lift adjuster failure can be caused by age, by letting the engine oil get really dirty in between oil changes, by a failing oil pump, or by contamination which is blocking oil from reaching the top of the cylinder head. Just as the name implies, hydraulic lift adjusters automatically adjust themselves every time you start your engine. The engine's oil pressure is used to perform the adjustments. If a hydraulic lift adjuster overcharges itself, then the underlying valve will not close fully since the hydraulic lift adjuster is overextended. But this usually is never the case -- unless a mechanic removed the rocker arms and rails and then forgot to reset all of the hydraulic lift adjusters to their minimum heights before reinstalling the rocker arms and rails.

Regardless of the cause of the pinging, switching to high octane fuel combined with a failing mass air flow (MAF) sensor was a BAD idea. The MAF sensor senses how much air is flowing into the engine. When it fails, the vehicle computer turns on the check engine light and switches to a pre-programmed fail-safe mode for fuel injection. Since the computer has no idea how much air is going into the engine when the MAF sensor is malfunctioning, the computer can only guess at the right fuel mixture. Throw on top of that your switch to high octane fuel, and you have the right ingredients for burnt valves.

Now, I assume that your mechanic checked the compression on each cylinder before determining that you need a valve job? You might want to get a second opinion on this -- or even test it yourself! Its simple to test. Buy or rent a compression testor which automatically locks onto the highest compression reading. Then simply remove the spark plugs, unplug the fuel pump, and use the testor to check each cylinder. Have an assistant turn over the engine for each cylinder test, and wait 30 seconds between testing each successive cylinder so that the starter doesn't overheat. The engine only neads to turn over four or five times to accurately test each cylinder.

Write down the reading for each cylinder. Average the results of all cylinders. Check if the average compression is within the factory limits. Then check if any individual cylinder's compression is outside of teh factory limits. Finally, the compression of each cylinder should be within 10% of the average compression. If all of these conditions are okay, then your engine does NOT need a possible valve job, ring job or cylinder honing.

When you get done testing, reinstall the spark plugs and plug the fuel pump back in. Then open the fuel cap on the gas tank and then start the engine to repressurize the fuel lines. Why open

 

what you might want to try, is... put some Sea Foam in the engine oil, and let it run for a while (driving) go get that throughout your system... then do an oil change... and get rid of all the contaminants, oil build up etc.. . then when you put the oil back in... replace one of the quarts of oil with some Lucas Oil Stabilizer... about 7-8 bucks... that might help with the lifters, plus it will coat the insides and will make it more lubricated on cold starts, because the lubrication will still be on the components... and put the lucas in every oil change, it will help keep the engine running good. as far as the oil goes...

 

I know a lot of people swear by seafoam, but for newer cars it can damage the sensors and result in Check Engine Lights (which, in a lot of states means you fail inspection). I think seafoam works okay with older cars that have simpler engine controls, but after 1995 most states depend on the car's onboard diagnostics for verifying pollution control.... you want to be careful about messing with that if you want to pass inspection.

I'm not saying seafoam is always bad, but I would be careful.

 

I wouldn't use a lot, but, if you have the interior engine clogged up, to where the oil can't freely travel throughout the engine, then you need to use something to clean the system out, you can even use the mystery oil stuff. But, you only use about half, if that. I wouldn't use the whole can, that would be bad. We do have the emissions testings here and a lot of people use that around here, and i havn't heard of any problems after using it. But, if you over exceed the dosage, especially to these little engines... you want to use a minimal amount. If you use more than that, like you said, you will probably mess up the sensors. there are not a lot of sensors that are in contact with the oil. Its kewl, not to use Sea Foam, just a suggestion... I like it. But, thats me