FTO AUSTRALIA

Hi guys,

After hunting around for nearly 3 months for a decent Mechanic that knew that the Mivec's tappets were adjustable, the only two places I found were North Shore Mitsu and Auto Sports at Kirrawee.. Mitsu being the big garage, AS being the smaller...

Now question for you all? My engine had what i believed to be noisy tappets.. sounded like tappets, you know a slight tick tick tick tick .. getting louder with increased acceleration and with the engine hot yeah..
So with the engine at 100k I put it in for the timing belt/tappets/spark plus/oil seals etc here is what was done for the price tag...

LABOUR $480
Timing Belt fit/replace
Cam seals x4
Full moon seals x4
1/2 moon seals x4
Alternator Belt and power steering belts (were cracking?)
spark plug well seals
oil/oil filter change
Spark plugs (i provided)
Adjust tappets clearances inlet .10 , exhaust .13)
replace manifold gasket

PARTS $673
$220 timing belt
$15 Bolt 14x40
$100 x2 Gasket-R Cover (what's this?)
$71 x6 seal-cyc head spark plug
$36 x4 seal-cyc/head camshaft en
$20 x2 Gasket
$53 x4 oil seal (are there really this many seals?)
$31 Alternator belt V-rib
$92 Power steering belt
$21 Degreaser
$9 oil filter
$1 gasket dr- plug (cant believe they charged me for this one)

TOTAL INC GST $1296.00

They ended up having hte car for a week!! What the!!??

Now here is the big question ... why is my engine still tapping?? what else could it be besides tappets?? and I did not notice a performance increase in the car .. it sounds generally pretty quite at idle, but exactly the same when driving and when hot. It also still does a rough start in the morning, you know, kinda putts and taps a few times.. like skips a beat.. then smooths out.

Im starting to think they just said, stuff it .. leave the tappets lets get the car out of the workshop or that they simply didn't adjust it right the first time.. what should I do?? what could it be?

Cheers!

Jason

depends on the oil. I use a thinner oil and it is a bit noiser at idle than say a 10W40...but under load its perfect.

the alt/air con/idle pullies could be noisy also..i.e. the bearings. Just did mine and it makes much less noise now.

That noise may not be coming from the tappets but your clutch, my car has the ticking noise coming from the clutch, when you push the clutch pedal it will go quiet, when you start it when its cold its doesn't make any noise, only when you drive it for 20 mins it will start to make some noise.

To check if its your clutch is making the noise, when it is at idle, push the clutch pedal in and the ticking noise should go away, if not its something else.

$92 Power steering belt

You sleeping on your front that night?

Best way to trace tapping noises is to go around the motor with a large screw driver - place one end of the driver on various spots on the motor & they other end against your ear.... just move it round till you find the source of the noise.

It could well be clutch as mentioned - the springs in the clutch plate do have a tendancy to rattle. If the noise goes away when your foot is on the clutch, then thats it.

got mine today for $110 gates made in america...hmm half the price, think u got overpriced there....but then again its from a mitsubishi dealer

Jasonkay wrote: PARTS $673
$220 timing belt
$15 Bolt 14x40
$100 x2 Gasket-R Cover (what's this?)
$71 x6 seal-cyc head spark plug
$36 x4 seal-cyc/head camshaft en
$20 x2 Gasket
$53 x4 oil seal (are there really this many seals?)
$31 Alternator belt V-rib
$92 Power steering belt
$21 Degreaser
$9 oil filter
$1 gasket dr- plug (cant believe they charged me for this one)

Hey Jason!

any chance of adding the part numbers for future reference? I need to do mine soon aswell.

Thanks!

bar the power steering belt those are about average prices, good job gettn the cam seals done... they are a bitch of a job!!! (i gave up trying to get the cams off) about a week is pretty good, remembering i pretty much did all of that myself (and a bit more) and it took me just over 4 weeks from start to starting the engine(then it stopping again) cant answer your ticking problem, hope its not the same prob ive got, if its too loud and your dropping in performance maybe youve dropped a valve? or a valve seal i dunno, im no mechanic

good luck, keep us posted

Part numbers as requested:-

The part numbers are on the Mitsu invoice, They may be internal Mistu codes not sure, or they may be the global part number shurg...

MIMD211195 Timing belt
MIMD184973 V-ribbed Alternator-belt
MIMD318667 Power Steering Belt
MIMD309002 GASKET R/COVER
MIMD193910 GASKET

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small update, so I demand my tappets get redone, they oblige, but they don't garantee that they can make them quite cause they say that with time, sometimes the tappet contacts get an unflush edge, so when you slip the feeler in you don't get 100% clearence accuracy due to the uneven surface, that to do so you would need them rounded off. at 100k? .. surly not.

Still noisey, does anyone in Sydney have a recommendation for someone who actually works on FTO's a fair bit?

Cheers

Jason.

You could have the rocker faces machined to avoid that. Where abouts in Syd are you located?

problem could be they did not change the oil??? Its not stated in your invoice

thats the problem with mechanics they could have not even touched the tappets and just charged ya for it.

payaya wrote:problem could be they did not change the oil??? Its not stated in your invoice

thats the problem with mechanics they could have not even touched the tappets and just charged ya for it.

i agree

if they have been fixed and you have new oil you should only hear the engine perrrrrr.

Maybe one or a couple of the tappet adjusters platics crown have broken off and the floating end bit on the adjuster has fallen off.

Or

insted of adjusting 0.10mm and 0.13mm they adjustered them as 0.10" and 0.13", they might of done them in imperial measurements, and not metric.

But I might be wrong.

bigpitty1 wrote: insted of adjusting 0.10mm and 0.13mm they adjustered them as 0.10" and 0.13", they might of done them in imperial measurements, and not metric.

But I might be wrong.

lol I made that mistake may years ago

Mind you, the oldest Mitsi I ever owned was a 78 Sigma... and it was all metric. Dunno if Mitsi would have any imperial tools!

The mechanics might still have imperial tools.

I had my 100K done at crows nest mitsu and it sounds like the tappets are about to explode out of the top of the engine! I honestly don't think that the mechanics at North Shore Mitsu actually know how to work on an FTO at all. (Very bad experience ) Am taking it to a mechanic I can actually trust and depending on what he reports back to me I might take mitsu to court if they don't do as they are told.

Jason I reckon its mitsu that didn't do your tappets properly...