hey guys everytime im idling i hear this slight ticking sound that pulses for a second then stops for 2 seconds then repeats over and over. i was told it was valve chatter and that i may just need some better oil, or a valve adjustment. is this advice correct? thanks in advance

Motor is a 2000 b18c1, less than 100k miles

 

Valve Adjustment first. It could also be a LMA, though less likely.

 

Do a valve adjustment on the engine and see if that helps.

http://www.c-speedracing.com has a DIY to valve adjustment on a b18c

 

thanks guys ill have a go at it.

is it something to worry about though? is there any damage happening or anything that can happen?

 

valve adjustment almost 100% sure. its an easy thing to do. Just takes you a little time to do it. I dont think its a horrible thing, but i for sure would do it as soon as possible.

 

my step brother has a similar noise. I was 100% sure it was the valves. But i adjusted them to the right specs and it started ticking again. After i started thinking about it, it sounded like it could be a wrist pin.
So, if adjusting the valves doesn't work, you could have a serious problem

 

just about every engine ive seen/heard has had some kind of ticking...

 

Well i had that same exact problem. I wasnt sure it was the valves because it was how he explained it, it ticked some then went away then came back right after that. I adjusted the valves and it was all good. I think i ran my car with it ticking for about a week or two. I thought somethign was fucked in my engine, but it was just needing a tune up.

 

and dont take your car anywhere to get the valves adjusted, just do it yourself. I took my car in a couple times when i didn't have the time to do it myself and they were worse when i got it back and I was out 100 bucks each time. Super easy to just do it yourself and that way you know you've done it right.

 

since it looks like you have a vtec engine from the looks of your sig. you will need some special tools for it. Easy stuff. You can go to amazon.com and look for the valve adjustment tool. Or you can look up my lsvtec build and it has the link to it directly. And you will need another tool but i forgot what it was called and its bent to be able to get to your vavles. Its an easy process but you need to follow the directions in a chiltons or you can look it up on here.

 

thanks for all the replies guys. hopefully ill have ti done today. im going to my mechanic who allows me to stay and perform most of the work on my car while he supervises. this way ill make sure its done right the first time.

and yes it is on a vtec engine. b18c1 son!!!

 

ok well got the adjustment done finally and alls good. the clearances were way off before but now it sounds nice and smoothe, thanks guys.