In my town, there is a general maintenance and tire shop that probably has the best reputation around...including better than the national brand name companies like Meineke, etc. They are called Ed's Tire and Auto. It's a chain of about 4 shops in the city, all family run. Even on a Saturday morning, one of these shops has about 30 cars with people waiting.

Now, to my topic: In my 97 Monte, I just got a coolant flush this morning. They did it for only $48. They also checked my entire car and diagnosed a few things that needed to be done, like a major tune-up, $275, and a transmission flush, $89. I knew the car needed these things, of course. The managers son, a very competent mechanic, did a check-up for free and found the car in very good condition minus the above needed maintenance.

This car has had a valve knocking sound for a quite a while, a knock the dealer wasn't terribly concerned about, but the mechanic said he had a novel fix instead of me taking it to the dealer and spending $800 to $1000. He said he'd done this many times successfully for cars like mine. He said he would put transmission fluid in the engine (not sure what that meant), and that doing this maybe 3 times with about 1500 miles between treatments should built the lifters up and reduce the knocking. Has anyone ever heard of this method? It sounds a little far-fetched, but this company's reputation preceeds them. I know they'e competent, but I was just looking for input. Thanks.

 

How much trans fluid are we talking about here? I don't see where putting trans fluid in an engine would help the knocking sounds. Of course I am not a mechanic by trade.

I have on the other hand fixed a few lifter problems by running fuel through the crank case (not a suggestion).

I could see a solvent of some sort but a lubricant? On the flip side, what do you really have to lose? If I were facing a 800 - 1000 dollar repair bill I would give it a shot..

 

yes i have heard of it befoire never tried it but have heard of it.

tranny fluid has detergent in it (some brands) so by doing this you are putting the lifeter in to a bath basically so if it is stuff do to build up it will help clean it off and if this is the case it should stop the knock.

Would i do it to9 my car? welll more then likly not i owuld replace the lifters in it and then readjust them to fix the car right the first time. But hey if it works and ya dont have the cash it might be worth a shot but this is your call on it.

this is similur to what we used to do to our air tools about once a month we would lub them with tranny fluid to get rid of the oil build up in them and it would make them run like new again and your not runnign them dry to damage them.

let us know what ya do and if it turns out all right for you.

besides lifters are not that hard to replace they are right under the intake and the push rods hold them in place . for a person with some ability they are about a days job. if your not used to wrenching on your own car, If you are they would take a few hours at most to do them and readjust them right.
Get a manula for the car and read up on them . also it will give the torq specs to tighten them up tho.
Good luck

 

i would give you the thumbs up to do it. ive done it before in my parents durango, trying to wein it off of penzoil. it worked. like mickey said there is a higher detergent level in the trans fluid but it still has the lubricating abilities. i usually replace a quart of oil with atf about once a year. it really does the trick. the oil comes out black of coarse but there is no deposites in the oil from build up. but yeah give it a shot. put in one quart and run it for 1500 miles or so because there will be a lot of crap in there. but do this for a few oil changes. the maybe but in some rislone when you are done doing this ive seen this oil treatment work very well as well.

 

JJ

what have you heard of sea foam for cars?
good the bad and the ugly?
also how ofet is a good idea to use a injector cleaner in the cars ? I have a real issue here with the fule not being the best and even the good stuff has crap floating in it. so i would like to do it to make sure i dont plug a injector up

Also i have seen alot of cat's here that are pluged up or giving off that tale sing of rotten eggs is there anythign that you can use as a additive to stop this from happening?

 

ive used sea foam quite a bit. at the dealer we would add a can in every trans service. as far as the transmission sea foam i think it is pretty good stuff. it cleans your valve body fairly well adn i thingk it helps alot on the life of the trans as far as cleanliness. i think it is every 3000 miles you are suposed to throw in injector cleaner. so basically around every oil change. it really doesnt hurt the car to do it more often but ever 3000 should be suffice. as far as the cat is conscerned you fuel quality is a major factor in exhaust. what to do i guess just play with the filling station untill you are satisfied with the quality of fuel. besides a new cat is only just around $1000. but if it does plug check your emissions waranty its somewhere around 80k.

 

ok thanks
1000 just what i need LOL
i coulde get some more not needed toys for the monte for that price LOL
as far as changing gas stations tha tis a tuff one over here. Off base it would cost me like 80.00 Us tofill the car bad ebnough right now on base to day it cost me 37.00 to fill it from a 1/4 tank of fule. I hope they hurry up and get those camels workign so we can get better prices on fule soon LOL

 

I have heard of putting tranny fluid in the crankcase, I have heard that it does as he says it will, cleans out deposits and what not.

I have also heard that Sea Foam is pretty good stuff too, and you can use it in the crankcase, intake manifold and gas tank for a more thorough cleaning. That's what I'd do.