do these car have a reputation for a value tapping noise
Asked by Tom Apr 11, 2013 at 09:02 PM about the 2001 Buick Century
Question type: Shopping & Pricing
Guys selling this car says it has a valve tap and say this is common in this car He is asking 3500.00 and is very clean but the tap makes me nervous what do you think would you buy this car with the tap ?
thanks
searay160
18 Answers
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
value tapping?? 'bout ready to bust a gut laughing...you're not telling us how many miles you got on this buggy? You cannot tell where it's had it's oil changes on time unless there is a glovebox full of receipts. even so, the thing ticks? valve sounds, or down low at half-speed like a main crank looseness? had vehicles myself that had a bit of upper end noise. the ford 1.9 liters used on Escorts always sounded a bit "valvey", but still managed okay, could try to silence the ticking with "motor honey" if you felt this was necessary~
Nope, it has hydraulic valve tappets (lifters) and sure, they can make a tapping, ticking sound, from too heavy oil or very high mileage but a "reputation", no. "Common", no But searay before you buy it spend a few bucks to have it checked by a good mechanic, and get his evaluation in writing, for what good it will do, the car is 14 years old and you don't know how well it was maintained, how many miles are on the car?
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
Hi H25 yeah, that's why I made the crack about the glovebox full because we don't know how many miles? why's it tappin? this can't be good.~
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
suppose "motor honey" is akin to "the Black Tape solution" in that there's definitely a problem, but not today. say....crazy excellent Jazz on the dish network unused sports channels~ better than the sirius and better than Windows Media player selections...always hate when these unused sports channels start using them for sports and take the boss jazz off.....doooh~
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
H25 your images do not 'blow up 2x" when clicked...mine do, wonder what environmental variable does this?
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
again it's a matter of disclosure, how can we take a guess when there is half a million miles on this vehicle? please do tell, we are waiting...
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
the actual .jpeg has these flavors that we cannot get to unless equipped with a powerful graphics editor~
http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-t2017_ds544085....... that one got 3X bigger
migration_judge_roy answered 11 years ago
yours was the 'hot rod' with the white walls, I presume?
BIGJIM1962 answered 6 years ago
I have a '04 century 145,000 miles. Sounds like a tapping noise till it warms up t hen it goes away what is a possible problem
Hey Bigjim same problem - you ever figure it out?
I had a 2004 Century with 70k miles and the valves chattered. It didn’t burn oil and I drove it for two years and 20k miles. I paid 3400 for it in 2014. I gave it away to a niece and she drove it without problems for over a year. It’s still on the road somewhere in New England.