There have been many posts regarding the noisy lifters and their replacement. Has a definitive answer been found? Is there a VIN spread that has the issue? I don't recall a
TSB having been mentioned. Just checking. I sometimes think I hear a top end tick at start up but it doesn't seem consistent.

 

Good question... I haven't seen a TSB, nor do I think the "ticking" is a widespread problem. I have a terrific MB engine rebuilder here in So. Cal. and he has told me that he has not seen a W112 engine with any major problems, even with valves, lifters, etc. Check your oil level... It takes 8.5 qts. and many of the Chrysler dealerships don't quite get this...

I have a 30 +/- sec. "TICK" on start-up, but it's probably because I run Redline 40w oil and it takes a few seconds to thin out when I start the car... But, I can't be a benchmark because I beat the crap out of the engine on the track and I'll probably blow it up this year...

If there are any generous DC reps out there, I could use an extra crate motor, short block, long block to experiment with. Feel free to send it to my house...

PS: I'm going to need a new clutch and throw-out bearing in the next few months as well !!! Come on guys, it's good advertisement for you...

 

My daughters 2004 has a rattle on start up when cold which I would bet a bunch is the timing chain tensioner. It is a very familiar sound which I lived with on my 300E. I guess I should have her mention it at the next service but judging from past experience, if the dealer tried to fix it they would break something else. The 300E did it when new and never got worse. It was sold after 130,000 trouble free miles.

 

The Crossfire is one of few cars i owned which doesn't "tick" (so far ...). The worst i had was a 1989 Mitsubishi Colt 16V GTI. I did 200,000 km with "ticking" lifters. Never a problem beside the sound. But all mechs told me, it may happen but isn't bad at all. They told it has something to do with deposits because of unleaded fuel which sounds louder when cold. The procedure to remove the deposits were much to complex and expensive. And as long as it doesn't do any damage to other parts... So i've driven a ticking car during cold periods.

 

HDDP,

my Mercedes with 50K original miles just had its lifters replaced for a 3rd time. The dealer's foreman advised that he has seen this problem alot with the 320's especially in the ML's. Many benzes in south florida with the 3.2 sound the same, loud ticking. The company is aware of this and they issued a TSB on it also for the 2.3 Kompressor engine.

My XFire base coupe was horrible to the point that DC lemon'd the car and replaced it with another XFire but a limited one. When i was at the lot picking the new XFire they fired up a brand new limited coupe in blue and the ticking was SO BAD that the General Manager had them pull it off the lot and into the service area. So its not a rare problem, it seems very common with this engine. Now the question is why this premature failure. The Benz dealer say's its thin oil that we are running (BOGUS) but oh well. If you get a real answer i'd appreciate the feedback. I'm tired of replacing lifters both on XFire's and Benz.

 

I'll revisit Metric Motors and ask the question again. The last time I spoke with Mike he said the 3.2L engine is pretty solid, He said that since I run the car very hard on the track at least 12 weekends per year, I would probably see problems with the valves before anything else. Perhaps I just discounted this comment as something that would only happen because of my hard driving of the car...

If you want to find out for yourself, these guys are the best MB engine rebuilders on the West Coast http://www.mercedesengines.net/

 

When I first start mine I notice the lifters also make nose, but it goes away after a couple of minutes when it has started to warm up.

 

Yeah i get the same sound from mine on startup and then it goes away after about 30 seconds, thats normal. Yes the 3.2 is pretty bulletproof in all other aspects however every engine has a flaw at some point and with this one it has go to be these darn lifters. Mercedes' old 380 SL's were bulletproof V8's however the timing chain design had a flaw that required replacing or a trashed engine if it would snap while in motion. I think they fixed this single timing chain problem by converting it to a double timing chain.

But the problem here is that no one should have to get their engine opened up and worked on in the first year or two or even the first 5 years of ownership. To me once they have to start tampering with the engine of a car, i feel like it loses its integrity and after that you just never trust the engine or car again and you start questioning the cars reliability and POS engine quality.

I think we've paid enough for this car, so it pretty much be problem free for at least the common 3-5 year ownership without nothing more than oil changes, tire rotations and brakes (if needed). Just look at other people's reaction when you tell them "oh my new Crossfire that i just bought 6 months ago is getting its lifters replaced along with a oil change and tire rotation".

 

BullFrog: Thanks for the input, I agree.

My lifter noise only occurs for the first minute of a cold start-up and is probably from running straight viscosity 40W Redline Oil instead of the multi-viscosity Mobil 1 which is much thinner when cold and makes it through the pump much quicker at start-up.

We had a discussion on another thread about the advantages of using MMO to reduce lifter noise, you may want to take a look if you're experiencing the problem...

I'm sorry you ran into a LEMON, I have not had that unfortunate experience...

I have beat the crap out of the car on the track for the past 1.5 years and have not had a problem. Sadly, I have even done some really BAD (missed) downshifts which sent the motor into hyper RPM that pegged the tach for a few seconds. Still, it runs like a champ.

I have 20,000 miles on the car and half of that is HARD track time. I'm just now starting to see the signs of future valve problems with a much darker exhaust and carbon deposits on the plugs. I'm surprised I haven't blown the engine yet considering the fact that I run 100 octane with 1:4 ratio of Klotz Coxoc and a 1:100 ratio of MMO in the fuel.

But, I have always had great performance from Redline Racing Oil, MMO and the fuel mixtures aforementioned.

Heck, I'm SURPRISED I still have a clutch that works...

 

OK... I'll throw in my 2 cents here. My car was purchased used with only 8k miles on it. When she started it on the lot it rattled for maybe 2 seconds and ran perfectly...

I enjoyed the car for over 3 months and put another 4 thousand miles on it. It always ran perfectly... but started a slight tick on the right side of the engine. I blew it off for as long as could, and took it to the dealer. They changed the lifters and rocker arms... but it still ticked. The returned the car to me and said its all good. I drove it for a weekend and returned it back to them with the same very noticeable ticking at low RPM's under all conditions.

The diagnosed it to the furthest point Chrysler would let them, which included partial tear down, and ultimately came down to the car needing a whole new engine. The ordered a short block and then went through a tedious period of hand building the bottom end of the engine. Seems as tho MB doesn't build "spares" and the mechs at the dealer had to fit the crank and pistons as needed from scratch. It took 3 Chrysler tech reps and over 60 days to receive all the parts and assemble it and return the car to me. I was told that this was one of only 3 Crossfires in the nation that has needed a complete engine change. I was also told that there is only ONE parts warehouse in the nation for this car and they are slow to respond. The refused to tell me anything other than shut up and wait.

It works good now... nice and quiet... the whole experience really angers me... poor planning, poor dealer service department, etc... I'll never buy another thats for sure.

I still say the car is awesome and just what i wanted... but gezzzz, can we get a little dealer support.

 

That was the same prob i had with my lemon before it was replaced ticking sound coming from the right side of the engine and after they replaced the lifters and rockers 3x's it still had the noise and they just lemon'd the car, however i agree that we need more dealer support.

I also believe that we should all petition DC to allow MB dealers to service our cars i think at that point that we'll be better served and taken care of and our cars will be serviced the way they were intended to.

 

I spoke with the owner of Metric Motors (the largest MB engine rebuilders in So. Cal.) again today and mentioned this thread on the forum. He told me that there is no inherent problem related to valves, lifters, rocker arms or tappets in the W112 engine. He did say that he has seen problems with sludge build-ups which have caused problems in the valve guides, but that was only from a lack of routine oil changes.

He did not discount the possibility that some new engines could have been assembled wrong or had parts that were out of tolerance, but he was not aware of those, because they would inherently be serviced by the dealer under warranty conditions. And he rebuilds older engines back to MB spec.

PS: all of his 3.2L W112 engines have a full five year warranty and are re-built with factory parts. So, if he thought there was a problem with the overall engine or it's internals, I don't think he would be giving such a generous warranty. $7,900 for a full rebuilt W112.

 

I store my Crossfire (Pittsburgh area) for the winters. After the first year storage when I started it up it had a loud valve train noise ( I guess and I am a mechanic) on the right top side of the engine. One trip to the dealer and they said it was "normal" and that changing the oil more often than the maintenance computer said would cure the problem. I did change the oil (Mobil 1) and much to my amazement it was a bit better. Now two years later and after a summer/ warm weather overnight rest with 32k miles it is getting louder and last for a quite a while after start up. Sometimes you have to drive it before it goes away and sometimes for a few miles you can hear as you drive, even over the rear-end gear noise. Which is another "normal" sound.

As much as I like the car my lease is up in two months and I think I will let it go back. As particular as I am even if I could convince the dealer to replace the lifters, valves camshaft or what ever it needs I am not sure I would want the local minivan mechanic tearing in to a car I was going to keep. If it turned in to a bottom end rebuild like one of the members had to endure I very well have the "big one" over it.

Some of the new engines just are not designed / assembled very well. I have 2007 SS Trailblazer with the 6 litter Corvette engine and it sounds like crap when you first start it up. By contrast my '63 oldsmobile, '69 camaro, '74 GMC pick up and my son's '84 Mercedes with 250k the last 10 of which has been mostly on recycled veggie oil all sound great. Go figure. Best of luck to all.

 

dragsternut:

This year when I pulled my car out of storage I too experienced lifer noise when I started it up that lasted quite a while, 3-5 minutes, but it hasn't returned since. This was the third winter I stored it and I never experienced the noise on startup any of the previous years when I brought it out of storage. Since last winter was the only winter I never started the car, previous years I would start it once a month and let it run until it came up to temperature, I am suspecting that because of the viscosity of the 0-40W oil that the lifters became dry sitting. Next year I am going to start the engine once a month and see if that prevents the lifter noise from reoccurring.

 

It's a crying shame that this could never occur now since MB dropped Chrysler like a bad habit.

 

Mine tapped when I started it for about 2 minutes when it got about 12k on it. When it got to about 15k it stopped and is quiet at start up again. I think I thrashed on it a little bit the night before it started being quiet again. I think my car has a mind of its own because one day I was really serious and searched endlessly on the internet about this problem for hours. The same evening I went out to start it and voila! It was quiet and has been ever since for a couple weeks.

About the faint ticking at all engine speeds, I found a few people that I believe had m112 engines, but I forget what car, and they said they had the lifters replaced over and over and it didn't solve it and then their MB dealer had installed some kind of bushing in one of the motor mounts that cured the problem. It sounds like that may not even be a valve problem, but some sort of weird NVH problem

 

Hi. I'm new to this site. I have a white 2005 roadster with 30k km or 19k mi. Had the timing chain tensioner changed because of a "clik-clik-clik" 2 secs. sound when the car was started after been stop for 15-20 minutes when hot. It's Ok now.
The car has a new problem though; started this one last week; on cold start "tick-tick" sound for about 1-2 minutes and ok when warming up; definitely coming from the left cylinder head last cylinder; the dealer will change a lifter next week; hope hydraulic problems are over!

 

During the first 12k miles, I changed my oil and filter every 3k miles, and my motor was as quiet as a sewing machine.
Then I kept reading posts where people were saying I was throwing $$ away changing it that often. So I went for 5k before changing it, but I noticed it did get progressively louder, the longer I went.
I'm now changing my oil every 4k miles, and it seems to be sounding the way I think it should.

 

Lifters? Nah I think it's the pushrods making all that noise! lol.